The lead story in last week’s Recorder highlighted two cases in which IP lawyers and their firms were disqualified from representing current clients against their former clients, based on the so-called “playbook” theory of disqualification.
The article, paraphrasing ethics expert John Steele, described the theory as “another philosophy” of disqualification that is “gaining traction” in our local federal courts. However, this philosophy has been around since the very first case to apply California law to the modern standard of disqualification. Its re-emergence is a welcome sign that courts are paying more attention to the actual harm that can be done to former clients when their old lawyers appear on the other side of a case.
