Rhode Island Protects Attorney-Client Privilege in Trust and Other Fiduciary Matters

On June 13, 2025, Governor Dan McKee signed into law legislation introduced by the Rhode Island Bar Association (RIBA) to protect the attorney-client privilege in trust and other fiduciary matters. The new statute is a direct response to a recent Superior Court decision, Metcalfe, et al. v. Dempze, et al., where the Court adopted a minority view that communications between a law firm and their client-trustees were subject to a “fiduciary exception” to attorney-client privilege. In that case, the Court determined that when a trustee obtains legal advice to guide the administration of a trust, the trust’s beneficiaries are entitled to the production of communications between the trustee and their attorney.

Immediately after the decision was published, Attorney Eric D. Correira, a RIBA officer, Editor in Chief of the Bar Journal, and liaison to the Bar’s Probate and Trust Committee, raised the issues created by Metcalfe with the Probate and Trust Committee, which ultimately voted to support his proposal to ask the RIBA Executive Committee to introduce legislation, modeled after a New Hampshire statute, to protect the attorney-client privilege in trust and other fiduciary matters. The Executive Committee, led by then President Christopher S. Gontarz, unanimously supported the proposal in December, 2024.

For the following six months, Attorney Correira, Attorney Gontarz, and RIBA’s lobbyist, Attorney William A. Farrell, testified at multiple hearings and attended meetings in support of adding a new “Confidential Communications” section to Title 18 – Fiduciaries to provide “that a communication between an attorney and client acting as a trustee or other fiduciary, is privileged and protected from disclosure to the same extent as if the client was acting in his, her, or its individual capacity.” With the support of the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Matthew L. LaMountain, and Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Robert E. Craven, the bill moved out of their respective committees and received unanimous support in both the Rhode Island House and Senate, finally becoming law and reversing Metcalfe with Governor McKee’s signature on June 13, 2025.

As a result of these efforts, Rhode Island is now in line with the majority of states that ensure that the relationship between an attorney and client serving as a trustee or other fiduciary is subject to the same attorney-client privilege protections afforded to other types of attorney-client relationships. The statute is an important safeguard for trust and estate attorneys and their clients, and makes certain that Rhode Island lawyers handling such matters will be able to effectively represent clients knowing that their communications are protected.

To read Metcalfe, et al. v. Dempze, et al. (Prov. Sup. Ct. C.A. No. PC-2021-05737), click here.

To read Attorney Correira’s letter to the RIBA Executive Committee proposing the new legislation, click here.

To read the final, enacted statute, R.I.G.L. § 18-1-5 “Confidential Communications”, click here.