A privilege log is a document produced in discovery that identifies each document withheld from production on grounds of privilege, describing the document without disclosing privileged content, enabling the opposing party to assess the validity of the privilege claim.
Last reviewed: 2026/05/19
Attorney-client privilege is the legal doctrine that protects confidential communications between a lawyer and client made for the purpose of seeking or providing legal advice, shielding those communications from compelled disclosure in legal proceedings.
Legal PracticeDocument production is the process of delivering to opposing parties in litigation or investigation the set of documents that are responsive to discovery requests, non-privileged, and within the scope of the applicable discovery order or agreement.
CapabilityE-discovery (electronic discovery) is the process of identifying, preserving, collecting, reviewing, and producing electronically stored information in response to litigation, investigations, or regulatory demands.
CapabilityPrivilege review is the process of examining documents in an e-discovery collection to identify and withhold materials protected by attorney-client privilege, work product doctrine, or other applicable privileges before production to opposing parties.
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Last reviewed: 2026/05/19. Definitions are written by the LawyerAI Editorial team. Commercial relationships are disclosed and do not determine editorial scores or conclusions. See our Sponsorship & Affiliate Disclosure.
A privilege log is a document produced in discovery that identifies each document withheld from production on grounds of privilege, describing the document without disclosing privileged content, enabling the opposing party to assess the validity of the privilege claim.
Privilege logs are a standard requirement in federal civil discovery under FRCP 26(b)(5)(A), which requires that a party withholding documents on privilege grounds expressly assert the privilege claim and describe the documents in a way that allows other parties to assess the claim without disclosing the protected information. Failing to produce an adequate privilege log, or producing it untimely, can result in privilege waiver.
The practical challenge is significant. In large discovery matters, withheld privilege documents may number in the tens of thousands. Preparing a privilege log entry for each document — identifying the date, author, recipients, document type, and privilege basis — requires substantial work that traditionally fell to litigation support staff and junior associates performing manual, document-by-document review.
An inadequate privilege log — one that uses generic descriptions like "confidential attorney communication" without sufficient specificity — invites challenges from opposing counsel and in-camera review motions. Courts have ordered privilege waiver for persistent log inadequacy.
AI tools have significantly changed the economics and accuracy of privilege log preparation, making what was once a purely manual task far more manageable on large document sets.
AI privilege log generation draws on the same AI features used in privilege review — attorney and entity recognition, legal advice language detection, and metadata analysis — to automatically populate privilege log entries for withheld documents. Relativity AI and Everlaw both include privilege log generation features that draft log descriptions from document metadata and AI-analyzed content.
AI-generated privilege log entries still require attorney review to confirm accuracy. The AI may misidentify the privilege basis, generate an insufficiently specific description, or miss a document that should be withheld. Quality control sampling is necessary before the log is served on opposing counsel.
Harvey AI and similar general legal AI tools can also assist with privilege log preparation by analyzing document batches and generating log descriptions for attorney review and editing — a use case well-suited to AI's ability to process many documents at consistent speed.
Some courts and jurisdictions have specific format requirements for privilege logs that AI tools must be configured to follow. Checking applicable local rules and the discovery protocol for privilege log format requirements before generating the log is essential.