No Showing Attorney Had Acquired Any Client Confidences Before Changing Firms
The Second Department determined there was no basis for disqualifying a law firm which represented the plaintiffs in a personal injury case based upon the firm’s hiring of an attorney who had represented the defendant in the same case. It was sufficiently demonstrated that the attorney had not acquired any client confidences during his representation of the defendant:
While generally, a party seeking to disqualify an opponent’s attorney “must prove: (1) the existence of a prior attorney-client relationship between the moving party and opposing counsel, (2) that the matters involved in both representations are substantially related, and (3) that the interests of the present client and former client are materially adverse” …, “no presumption of disqualification will arise if either the moving party fails to make any showing of a risk that the attorney changing firms acquired any client confidences in [his or her] prior employment … or the nonmoving party disproves that the attorney had any opportunity to acquire confidential information in the former employment” … . Sharifi-Nistanak v Coccia, 2014 NY Slip Op 05318, 2nd Dept 7-16-14