As lateral movement and law firm mergers have become the new normal, there has also been a corresponding rise in motions to disqualify. While there are certainly circumstances where disqualification is warranted under the conflict rules, sometimes the impetus for a motion to disqualify is to gain a tactical advantage in litigation or to settle some scores relating to an attorney's acrimonious departure from her or his prior firm.

There are a number of steps that law firms can take to limit potential motions to disqualify and to help defend against such motions when they are filed. In a perfect world, firms will provide full disclosure and obtain consent with respect to potential conflicts of interest at the inception of the client relationship.

However, no matter how many precautions are taken, most law firms inevitably face a motion to disqualify at some point, particularly with regard to lateral hires while a case is ongoing. Even if the motion is completely meritless, law firms should take every motion to disqualify seriously given the potential risks to the law firm. Indeed, for the reasons discussed below, law firms may find that retaining outside counsel is preferable to going it alone when defending a motion to disqualify.