Notice · In-House / General Counsel
Notice to a person interviewed in an internal investigation (who the lawyers act for, privilege and confidentiality)
A written notice, with an opening script, for an employee or contractor interviewed in a privileged internal investigation: the lawyers act for the organisation, the privilege is the organisation’s, what stays confidential, support people, recording and protected disclosures.
- Kind
- Notice. A formal notice to serve or publish.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 18 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 18 October 2026 against the 2 authorities it cites, for Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Give it to each witness before an interview in an investigation run by in-house or external lawyers for the purpose of legal advice, and read the key points aloud at the start. It is not a show-cause letter and is not for the person under investigation to answer allegations; use a separate procedural fairness letter for that.
How AI may be used
AI may fill the matter details into the approved notice and prepare a neutral interview plan from the terms of reference, but a lawyer settles the notice for each witness and no AI transcription runs without the witness’s informed consent.
AI may
- Insert names, dates, the investigation reference and the support-person and recording options into the approved notice
- Prepare a draft list of neutral topics for the interview from the terms of reference, for the investigator to edit
- Transcribe or summarise an interview only where the witness has consented in writing and the tool is on the approved register
AI must not
- Must not tell the witness anything about the allegations, other witnesses’ evidence or likely outcomes beyond what the lawyer has approved
- Must not record, transcribe or summarise an interview without the witness’s informed consent and any consent the law of the place of recording requires
- Must not be used to draft a witness statement or affidavit for the witness to sign
- Must not process interview notes or recordings in a tool that retains inputs or trains on them
The lawyer checks
- The investigation is set up by a lawyer for the dominant purpose of legal advice or anticipated litigation, and the terms of reference say so
- The notice does not restrict the witness from making a disclosure protected by law, including a whistleblower disclosure or a report to a regulator or police
- The support person, union representative and recording options match the organisation’s policies and any enterprise agreement
- Whether interview notes are kept as privileged lawyer’s notes, and who may see them, has been decided before the interview
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in In-House / General Counsel
- Compulsory regulator notice response checklist (ASIC s 33 and ACCC s 155 notices)
- Legal services request and triage form (in-house legal team)
- Delegation of authority and contract signing policy (with board delegation resolution)
- Legal professional privilege protocol for in-house teams (including AI tools and meeting transcription)
- Whistleblower policy (Corporations Act Part 9.4AAA and tax whistleblowers), with rules for AI and case-management tools
- Board legal and regulatory risk report (memo template, including AI risk and how the paper was prepared)
- Instruction letter and terms of engagement for external lawyers (in-house client, including AI use and billing rules)
- Litigation hold (document preservation) notice, covering chat, AI prompts, outputs and meeting transcripts
- AI tool approval request, risk assessment and register entry (legal team and business use)
- Organisational AI use policy: completion guide for the National AI Centre template (legal team additions)
All precedents for In-House / General Counsel · Tasks and AI use in this area