An internet firm hires an attorney to review its Google Ads account registration responses to help it secure internet advertising. The law firm uses the firm’s confidential intellectual property information to do so. After the representation ends, the internet firm is repeatedly outbid for Google Ads by an internet competitor and thereby losing market share and revenue opportunities. The internet competitor is using the same attorney to review its Google Ads account registration responses as the internet firm. The internet firm is concerned that the attorney is using its information to help a rival, and wants to sue the attorney for malpractice, but does not want to expose its confidential intellectual property information in the process. The use of Rule of Professional Conduct may provide a solution.

The use of ethics rules in a malpractice proceeding is designed to prevent the law from requiring former clients form revealing confidential intellectual property information while dealing with attorneys who have misused said confidential intellectual property information. The use of ethics rules provides an alternative for a former client to providing direct proof that attorneys misused their confidential information, by disclosing the confidential intellectual property information that ethics rules are intended to shield.