Conflicts of interest aren’t always straightforward, especially with trust and estate planning matters. The Supreme Court of Utah recently determined that there was no former client conflict under Utah’s Rule 1.9 where lawyers were found to have only represented the former trustees and not the trust itself in litigation.
Trustees (“Trustees”) hired lawyers to represent
The eyes of the nation and of the world have been on crucial issues of racial inequity in the past few weeks following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. These issues penetrate to the very essence of how we can maintain a just society — issues that likewise go to the
A New Jersey lawyer’s involvement in the sale of a massage parlor rubbed the district court the wrong way and resulted in his disqualification from a later suit over the transaction. In its opinion last month, the court ruled that the buyer was the lawyer’s former client, and that the earlier work on the sale
The California court of appeals has denied a bid by an employment discrimination defendant to disqualify the plaintiff’s legal team. The name partner in the law firm representing the plaintiff was formerly the employer’s chief operating officer — but the court rejected the assertion that his firm should be disqualified merely based on his knowledge
“DQ” at this time of year makes me think of drive-in ice-cream cones. But I actually mean “DQ” as in “disqualification,” and instead of sugar cones, it points to an interesting case involving some take-home lessons about conflicts of interest.
Crisis of unhoused residents
California’s massive homelessness problem has been the subject of several federal
Do you toil in the pressure cooker of a firm, but dream of going in-house? Many lawyers have that goal. But the churn works in the other direction, too, with in-house lawyers migrating to firms or solo practice. When they do, they can face conflict of interest issues leading to disqualification, as a former in-house
Representing a campus sexual assault victim-turned-activist and later using her confidential information in representing an alleged campus assailant with interests adverse to the former client is a “textbook” conflict of interest. That’s the message the Pennsylvania Supreme Court sent in suspending a lawyer for a year in a consent-to-discipline case published this week.
Former -client
A Pennsylvania state court judge disqualified Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP earlier this month from appearing for either defendant in a shareholder dispute involving a Philadelphia LLC that provides services to pharmaceutical companies. The opinion spotlights the conflict issues that can come up when representing an entity and its controlling member against a claimed minority