This appeal arises from a legal malpractice suit filed by Walter Clough against attorney Thomas E. Richelo and his law firm, Richelo, Morrissey & Wright, P.C. collectively, “Richelo”. Richelo filed a motion with the DeKalb County Superior Court to disqualify Clough’s attorney, A. Todd Merolla, and Merolla’s law firm, Raiford and Dixon, L.L.P., from representing Clough in the malpractice litigation. The trial court granted Richelo’s motion, and Clough appeals,1 contending the court abused its discretion in disqualifying Merolla and the law firm. We find the trial court abused its discretion in disqualifying Merolla and, therefore, reverse. The challenge to the disqualification of the law firm, however, is moot. By way of background, the record in this case shows that, in 1994, Clough worked as a sales consultant for Main Line Corporation and Noe Santamarina collectively, “Main Line”. Three years later, Clough directed Main Line to begin making commission payments to Clough Marketing Services, Inc. “CMS”, which he had recently incorporated in Georgia. Clough’s wife owned 100 of the shares of CMS. In 1999, Clough sued Main Line in the Superior Court of Fulton County, seeking to recover over $1,200,000 in sales commissions hereinafter, the “Main Line suit”. Clough hired Richelo to represent him in the Main Line suit, and Richelo filed the suit, naming both Clough and CMS as plaintiffs.
In March 2002, while the Main Line suit was still pending, Clough’s wife moved to another state and asked Clough for a divorce. Richelo attempted to mediate the couple’s disagreement regarding how to proceed with the Main Line suit so that he could continue to represent both Clough and CMS as joint plaintiffs in the suit. Richelo notified the couple that he could not proceed with the Main Line suit until they resolved their disagreement over how to proceed with the suit. In January 2003, Richelo advised Clough that Clough might not have an individual claim against Main Line and that a jury could find that any award from the Main Line suit would be payable only to CMS and its sole shareholder, Clough’s wife. Richelo then notified Clough that, unless Clough signed a new agreement that would allow him to continue to represent both Clough and CMS as joint plaintiffs, he Richelo was going to withdraw from his representation of Clough, but was going to continue to represent CMS in the Main Line suit. Clough refused to sign the agreement.
