Law firm breakups are consistently fodder for articles about the salacious details of alleged attorney misconduct. Attorneys who determine they can no longer work together will often take the additional step of accusing one another of inappropriate conduct. More often than not, we hear about attorneys taking law firm files in the dead of night, or allegations that compensation was at least improperly, if not fraudulently determined. However, the violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct implicated in these breakups occasionally have an antecedent that long precedes the actual implosion of the relationship.