Monster Energy Says Confidentiality Agreement Binds Lawyer (1)

Monster Energy Co. argued May 7 that a lawyer is bound by a confidentiality agreement his clients signed in a wrongful death settlement with the drink company.

The California Supreme Court during oral arguments questioned how far lawyers can be bound by a confidentiality agreements. An appeals court held the attorney who signed the agreement as to “form and content”—but wasn’t a party—can’t be bound by the confidentiality provision his clients agreed to in the settlement.

Were the court to hold that signing such agreements as to form bound an attorney as a party to all the provisions, that “would ...