Illustrating the ease with which conflicts of interest can arise at a big firm, attorneys at Morrison & Foerster recently found themselves with clashing interests in the same trial, thanks to a third party’s neglecting to disclose key information.

San Francisco-based partners Adam Lewis and Michael Jacobs discovered the conflict Friday when they realized that an objection filed on behalf of their client, Novell Inc., would delay a transaction in which the buyer was another MoFo client.