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Shuttleworth v. Rankin-Shuttleworth of Ga. LLC

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting the plaintiffs' motion to disqualify the defendants' counsel in an action regarding a former business partnership, as counsel's prior representation of the plaintiffs had both material and logical connections to the pending litigation.

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Rankin-Shuttleworth of Georgia, LLC “RSG” and Marvin Rex Rankin, III collectively “Plaintiffs” filed suit against Rankin’s former business partner, J. Sterling Shuttleworth, Shuttleworth’s wife, Linda Nethery, and Shuttleworth’s business, Venture Captive Management collectively “Defendants”, alleging conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference with business relations, fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets, defamation, unfair competition, malicious prosecution, civil conspiracy, and other claims.1 Plaintiffs moved to disqualify Wayne Pierce and his law firm, Pierce & Dunkelberger, collectively “Pierce” as Defendants’ counsel based on Pierce’s prior representation of Plaintiffs. The trial court granted the motion, finding a clear conflict based on Pierce’s prior representation of RSG and Rankin.

This Court granted Defendants’ application for interlocutory appeal, and on appeal, Defendants contend that the trial court erred in disqualifying their counsel and in failing to first hold an evidentiary hearing. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court’s ruling.

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