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.

Recently, after a seven-day hearing, in a 87-page opinion, an ad hoc hearing committee of the District of Columbia Bar recommended that the founders of the firm Tully Rinckey each be suspended from the practice of law for 90 days as a result of their repeated use of employment agreements that included "a host of restrictions and penalties they imposed or sought to impose on departing lawyers," including liquidated damages for leaving the firm without "good reason." The employment agreements also included restrictions on contacting firm clients, working with other former firm attorneys and hiring firm employees.