Stop-And-Frisk Judge Removed, Fights Back
On November 13, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court published a Code of Conduct that codifies the ethics rules and principles governing the conduct of Justices and their staff. The Code consists of five Judicial Canons that draw...more
Attorney General (“AG”) has issued guidance to the industry on the circumstances in which the AG will apply to Jersey’s Royal Court (“the Court”) under article 78 of the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991 (“the Companies law”) to...more
There is a well-worn joke about a lawyer who runs into an old acquaintance on the street. “I’m so glad to see you!” the friend exclaims. “I’m in terrible trouble—can I ask you a couple of questions?” “Of course,” replies the...more
The United States District Court for the District of Utah, applying Utah law, has held that a law firm’s representation in its insurance application that it lacked knowledge of any incident, act, error, or omission that could...more
Arbitration awards may be vacated or annulled based on arbitrator conflicts of interest and even just an appearance of impropriety. Read how different arbitrations deal with disqualification motions. The Importance of...more
Prospective Clients – Duty of Confidentiality – Potentially Harmful or Disqualifying Information ABA Formal Opinion 492 (June 9, 2020) - Risk Management Issue: When dealing with prospective clients, what steps can a lawyer...more
This edition provides an overview of key regulatory developments in the past three months relevant to companies listed, or planning to list, on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (HKEx), and their advisers. In...more
Engagement Agreements – Mandatory Fee Arbitration Provisions – Malpractice Arbitration Provisions - District of Columbia Ethics Opinion 376 - Risk Management Issue: What are the requirements to make agreements to arbitrate...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concluded that a firm’s ongoing representation of the opposing parties’ indirect subsidiary and affiliate in three patent infringement appeals created a concurrent conflict of...more
Jarvis Properties is a limited partnership with two general partners. As fate would have it, the two general partners are brothers and each brother holds a 50% interest in the partnership. When one brother, James, sued for...more
Federal Circuit Summary - Before Lourie, O’Malley, Reyna. Appeals from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, and United States District Court for the...more
The case of RehabCare Group East, Inc. v. Village Health Care Management, LLC demonstrates the importance of thorough and vigorous conflict of interest checks by attorneys to avoid representation overlap. This case...more
• In Bridgepoint Construction Services, Inc. v. Newton, et al., the California Court of Appeal recently affirmed a trial court's decision to disqualify an attorney from representing multiple clients who all sought damages...more
Chief Judge Saris in the District of Massachusetts recently granted a motion to disqualify the Sunstein law firm from representing Altova in a patent suit against Syncro Soft, upon finding that the conflict was foreseeable...more
In California Self-Insurer’s Security Fund et al. v. The Superior Court of Orange County (1/26/2018 – No. G054981), the Fourth Appellate District considered whether vicarious disqualification of a law firm is mandatory or...more
Notwithstanding general public opinion of attorney ethics, most people (including attorneys) believe that an attorney cannot dump a client in the middle of litigation to represent the other side. However, attorneys in the...more
Conflict of Interest – Current Clients – Duty of Care with Respect to Unrelated Matters - Oakland Police & Fire Retirement System, et al. v. Mayer Brown, LLP, 861 F.3d 644 (7th Cir. 2017) - Risk Management Issue: Does a...more
In deciding a disqualification motion based on a conflict of interest resulting from a lateral hire, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California recently adopted a screening-friendly approach in National...more
In theory, it is not an unfair labor practice to refuse to negotiate with a union engaged in competition with the employer—unless, of course, the employer gave the union other reasons for refusing to negotiate. The...more
TRICK OR TREAT! The editors of the Halloween edition of the Lawyers' Lawyer Newsletter invite you to enjoy frightening tales of shocking assaults by non-clients on an unsuspecting law firm; a lawyer's nail-biting escape from...more
Basic Test - Why stop at excluding expert testimony when you can exclude the expert? For years, expert witness conflicts doctrine has been developed through the federal common law. Although appellate courts have been...more
Disqualification — Substantially Related Matters — Waiver of Conflict by Lack of Diligence in Seeking Disqualification - State of Minnesota, et al v. 3M Company, Hennepin County (Minn.), Court File No. 27-CV-10-28862...more
Conflicts of Interest — Subject Matter Conflicts — Can IP Attorneys Simultaneously Represent Two Clients That Are Prosecuting Patents for Similar Inventions? - Maling v. Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner,...more
The Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District in Costello v. Buckley (3/16/2016 - Case No. D068536) affirmed the trial court’s disqualification of defendant’s counsel where he had previously represented plaintiff in...more
Providing a rare glimpse into a Federal Circuit judge’s views on the rules of professional conduct governing conflicts of interest, on February 26, 2016, Federal Circuit Judge William Bryson, sitting as a trial judge, denied...more