Dissolving a law firm is a process, not an event, the D.C. Bar Legal Ethics Committee said in a new opinion released earlier this month, and some ethical obligations continue even after dissolution. “The paramount” principle, said the committee, is to “continue to competently, zealously and diligently represent and communicate with the clients during the
Digital dilemma: Who owns litigation database when partners leave a firm?
A high-profile duel over rights to a legal database is playing out in state court in Boston. The warring parties are six former partners and the asbestos defense firm they left, allegedly taking with them high-value file management and other databases. The case, filed in November, raises the question: When partners leave, does a database that includes client information belong to the clients they take with them? Or to the old firm, which says it has invested heavily in developing the proprietary database?
Continue Reading Digital dilemma: Who owns litigation database when partners leave a firm?
4th Circuit to decide whether forfeiture clause in partnership agreement violates D.C. ethics rules
The opening brief has been filed in a Fourth Circuit appeal that’s sure to be closely watched by the 100,000 members of the D.C. bar, as well as others. A key issue in Moskowitz v. Jacobson Holman PLLC is whether a law firm partnership agreement can reduce a partner’s equity payout if the partner walks out the door with clients. The district court said that the provision violates ethics rules, and is therefore unenforceable as against public policy.
Continue Reading 4th Circuit to decide whether forfeiture clause in partnership agreement violates D.C. ethics rules
Leaving your firm? Virginia rule requires an even playing field
Lawyers who leave a firm for greener pastures can present challenges, with the lawyer and the former firm each trying to position itself to take or keep clients.
While several states have ethics opinions with guidelines on managing the process, Virginia has now become the second jurisdiction in the country to add such guidelines to
Thelen update: 2nd Circuit says former partners can keep hourly fees
On Wednesday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals put a nail in the coffin of the attempt by Thelen LLP’s bankruptcy trustee to claw back fees on work that the firm’s former partners took with them to their new firm, Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Here’s the opinion.
The Second Circuit ruling came after it asked
“Unfinished business” doctrine falls in N.Y. — no Jewel claims
A new and perhaps final chapter has been written in the long-running saga of the 2008 collapse of the Thelen firm. The New York Court of Appeals has held that when lawyers exit defunct firms for greener pastures, the trustee of the old firm may not “claw back” profits earned on hourly-fee cases that