County of Los Angeles v. United States District Court for the Central District of California

James Forsyth, the plaintiff in the underlying case, Forsyth v. County of Los Angeles, CV-98-7731-FMC (CWx), is represented by attorney Stephen Yagman and the law firm of Yagman & Yagman & Reichmann. Joseph Reichmann is a' retired United States Magistrate Judge who, five years ago, presided over settlement negotiations in Thomas v. County of Los Angeles, CV-93-5390-JSL (JRx). Forsyth and Thomas are police brutality cases, arising out of different incidents separated in time by several years. They are related only in the sense that the County of Los Angeles and one of its deputy sheriffs, Scott Hoglund, are defendants in both cases.

Defendants moved to disqualify the Yag-man firm on the ground that, during the settlement negotiations in Thomas, Reich-mann met with defense counsel ex parte and therefore had access to confidential information pertaining to the County of Los Angeles and Deputy Sheriff Hoglund. Yagman did not contest the disqualification of Reichmann but proffered the following evidence: Reichmann joined the Yagman firm as a partner on November 1, 1999, and has had no involvement in the Forsyth case. Moreover, a week before Reich-mann joined the firm, Stephen Yagman…