In an opinion that will go a long way toward protecting lateral hires from disqualification based on imputed conflicts of interest, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled it is a rebuttable presumption that attorneys have client confidences from their old firms when they change jobs.
The Oct. 30 opinion in Kirk A. Kennedy and Mark A. D’Andrea v. Mindprint Inc . was widely anticipated by legal ethicists and lawyers at large firms, who feared it would be a disaster for the practice of law in Texas if the court held the presumption is irrebuttable.
