Question: I am a recently elected association board director. The other directors have told me that our property manager is the “authority” and “go to” person for everything and she’s the “go between contact” with our association attorney and his firm. Individual directors must go through the manager with legal questions. The manager contacts the attorney, or his firm, and discusses board concerns. She is not a licensed attorney but often interrupts meetings to impart her “legal knowledge,” and directors rely on her words. During board meetings she begins answers with “the attorney says we should,” repeating what the attorney allegedly told her. Shouldn’t directors be discussing these items directly with the association attorney, whom we pay, and not through an employee of a management company contracted with our association?

Answer: If the association hired the attorney, that makes the association the client, not the property manager. The attorney-client privilege is only between the association and its attorney. If the property manager is designated as the “go to person” for contact, nothing the association discloses to the attorney remains confidential; it has been disclosed to a third party. All discussions, documents, papers and advice given by the attorney to the manager for relay are open for others to see, including those who might sue the association. None of it is protected by the attorney-client privilege.

|By Stephen Glassman and Donie Vanitzian