The lawyers representing Dr. Conrad Murray in Los Angeles Superior Court had no reason to cheer on Nov. 8, but it wasn’t just the guilty verdict that created tension on the trial team.

For much of the trial, discord dominated relations between Houston lawyer Ed Chernoff, who led the criminal-defense team for Murray, and his co-counsel J. Michael Flanagan of Glendale, Calif.’s Flanagan Unger Grover & McCool. Neither lawyer plans to represent Murray on appeal.