The US government confirmed in the High Court last week that it is not seeking to join a senior City solicitor to its litigation against tobacco companies.

Lovells partner Andrew Foyle was last week contesting an application by the US government to force him to give evidence in its action against a host of top tobacco companies, including the US subsidiary of Lovells' client, British American Tobacco (see [2003] Gazette, 13 November, 4).

Norton Rose partner Val Davies, who is representing Mr Foyle, said: 'The US government made it absolutely clear at the outset of the London litigation that there were no allegations of improper conduct by Mr Foyle.

'They confirmed that they are not seeking to join him in the main action in the US.'

The hearing has now finished and judgment on whether Mr Foyle will be forced to give evidence is expected in a few weeks.

He argues that he is bound by legal professional privilege.

The action relates to allegations by the US government that some of the tobacco companies fraudulently concealed research on the health consequences of smoking and misled customers about the addictive qualities of nicotine.

Some of the defendants are also accused of destroying documents.

If the court decides Mr Foyle should give evidence, it will question him about BAT and its subsidiary's document retention and destruction policies, and then pass it to the judge in the US case.

There is no suggestion that Mr Foyle was involved in any document destruction or any wrongdoing whatsoever.

Rachel Rothwell