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:

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]