Courts dealing with the subject of disqualification of counsel have to balance several different concerns: respecting a client's right to select the counsel of choice versus safeguarding a former client's private information.

On Dec. 9, 2015, Midland-based Finalrod IP, an oil field services company, had its law firm, Matthews Lawson McCutcheon & Joseph, disqualified by U.S. District Senior Judge David Alan Ezra in connection with patent litigation over oil field equipment against defendant John Crane Production Solutions Inc. Recently, Finalrod filed a motion with Ezra, the presiding judge in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas San Antonio Division, seeking to have the attorneys with the Houston office of the Matthews firm reinstated as its counsel.

According to the order granting defendant's motion to disqualify counsel issued by Ezra on Dec. 9, defendant John Crane in 2008 entered into an asset purchase agreement with The Fiber Composite Company d/b/a Fiberod Inc. (also d/b/a as Finalrod) which was in the business of selling and installing suckerods for oil and gas production.