Law360, New York ( October 10, 2014, 10:27 AM EDT) -- In complex commercial litigation, the deposition of a corporate representative can be one of the most useful tools available for obtaining meaningful discovery. When preparing for, taking, or defending such a deposition, particular attention should be paid to the application of the attorney work product doctrine and, to a lesser extent, the attorney-client privilege. In particular, depositions of a corporate representative often are used to cut through the vague and open-ended allegations in a party's pleadings and to isolate the specific facts on which a party bases its claims. The deposition of a party representative allows the party taking discovery to cut through the convenient memory lapses and finger-pointing in which individual witnesses may engage by probing the entire knowledge of a corporate party. However, there is an inherent tension between a party's obligations to adequately prepare its representative to testify and privileges that extend to communications with, and work product prepared by, the party's attorneys. This article will look at how courts have addressed these competing interests....