Adams

This case poses the following hypothetical question concerning the propriety of attorney disqualification in the context of successive representation: Lawyer’s former law firm, “Firm A”, advises “Client” on matters pertaining to land use and toxic waste disposal at its manufacturing site. Lawyer does not personally render any such advice and, in fact, spends no time rendering legal services to Client while at Firm A. Years later, having left Firm A and started a new law firm, “Firm B,” Lawyer files suit on behalf of a number of plaintiffs against Client alleging that Client’s use and disposal of toxic chemicals at the site caused groundwater contamination and that Client concealed it from the public. Client then brings a motion to disqualify Lawyer and Firm B from participating in the lawsuit, supported by a showing that Firm A’s earlier representation of Client has a substantial relationship to the present action. Does Firm A’s earlier representation of Client in matters pertaining to the current litigation automatically disqualify Lawyer and his current firm from representing plaintiffs?

No state appellate decision has yet answered this question. We will decide that…

I agree with much of the majority’s analysis, but disagree with the result.

In the context of an attorney-client relationship, the doctrine of imputed knowledge is a product of public policy and pragmatism. As a matter of public policy, it is presumed that an attorney has knowledge of confidential information adverse to the opposing party in a lawsuit when the former representation of that party by the attorney or the attorney’s firm had a substantial relationship to the matters at issue in the current lawsuit and when the nature of the former relationship between the attorney or the attorney’s firm and the party was such that confidential information material to the current dispute normally would have been imparted to the attorney. (H. F. Ahmanson & Co. v. Salomon Brothers, Inc. (1991) 229 Cal.App.3d 1445, 1452, 1453, 1454 [280. Cal.Rptr. 614].)

A former client’s legitimate expectations of loyalty, trust, and security in the attorney-client relationship, and the need for public confidence in the scrupulous administration of justice and the integrity of the bar, require such a presumption. (People ex rel. Dept. of Corporations v. SpeeDee Oil Change Systems, Inc. (1999) 20…

This case poses the following hypothetical question concerning the propriety of attorney disqualification in the context of successive representation: Lawyer's former law firm, Firm A, advises Client on matters pertaining to land use and toxic waste disposal at its manufacturing site. Lawyer does not personally render any such advice and, in fact, spends no time rendering legal services to Client while at Firm A. Years later, having left Firm A and started a new law firm, Firm B, Lawyer files suit on behalf of a number of plaintiffs against Client alleging that Client's use and disposal of toxic chemicals at the site caused groundwater contamination and that Client concealed it from the public. Client then brings a motion to disqualify Lawyer and Firm B from participating in the lawsuit, supported by a showing that Firm A's earlier representation of Client has a substantial relationship to the present action. Does Firm A's earlier representation of Client in matters pertaining to the current litigation automatically disqualify Lawyer and his current firm from representing plaintiffs?

No state appellate decision has yet answered this question. We will decide that the…