If you are thinking of changing law firms, avoid the kinds of conflicts addressed in Mitchell v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Corp., 2002 WL 441194 (S.D.N.Y. 2002). After seven years at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, attorney Wendy Fleishman became a partner at the 12-lawyer New York office of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP. Before moving, Ms. Fleishman learned that Lieff Cabraser was planning a class action against MetLife, so she asked MetLife for a conflict waiver. MetLife could not locate the action (because it had not yet been filed) and did not provide a waiver. Ms. Fleishman did not pursue the waiver any further.
After Ms. Fleishman arrived at Lieff Cabraser, the firm filed the suit against MetLife, which moved to disqualify Lieff Cabraser. Although Ms. Fleishman had never worked on any MetLife employment discrimination matters while she was at Skadden, she had acquired material confidential information about MetLife through her extensive work on other MetLife matters (for example, 1,800 billable hours on 50 MetLife matters in 1999). Lieff Cabraser argued that it had adequately screened Ms. Fleishman from the discrimination case, but the judge disagreed on two grounds:
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