The Attorney-Client Privilege and Relationship
In Washington State, the attorney-client privilege is defined by RCW 5.60.060(2), which provides as follows: An attorney or counselor shall not, without the consent of his or her client, be examined as to any communication made by the client to him or her, or his or her advice given thereon in the course of professional employment.
The purpose of the privilege is to encourage full and uninhibited communications between attorney and client. Thus, although the statute speaks only to whether the attorney may be 
questioned about communications with a client, the statute has been interpreted to restrict questioning of the client as well. In a nutshell, the privilege bars evidence of communications between attorney and client only when the communications were intended as confidential.
The client is the holder of the attorney-client privilege. That is to say that only the client may give consent for the attorney to divulge confidential communications. However, the client may waive the privilege in situations where they bring a third party into closed door conferences with the attorney, share the privileged communications with a third party, or confer with the attorney where the conversation may be heard in the open by the public. Other situations of waiver include the client commencing an action against the attorney, and in a criminal case, a plea of insanity or diminished capacity waives the attorney-client privilege.
A corollary to the attorney-client privilege is the ethical rule governing the confidential nature of the attorney-client relationship. The Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) govern the attorney-client relationship. Once such a relationship has been formed, a lawyer shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent, the disclosure is impliedly authorized in order to carry out the representation or the disclosure is reasonably necessary to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm, to prevent the client from committing a crime, to prevent, mitigate or rectify substantial injury to the financial interests or property of another that is reasonably certain to result or has resulted from the client’s commission of a crime or fraud in furtherance of which the client has used the lawyer’s services, to secure legal advice regarding compliance with the rules, to establish a claim or defense on behalf of the lawyer in a controversy between the client and attorney, to comply with a court order, or to inform a tribunal about any client’s breach of fiduciary responsibility when the client is serving as a court-appointed fiduciary. RPC 1.16.
Even where an attorney-client relationship has not yet been formed, but the prospective client discusses with a lawyer the possibility of forming such a relationship, a lawyer who has had discussions with a prospective client shall not use or reveal information learned in the consultation, with limited exceptions found in RPC 1.9. RPC 1.18.
