Ethics

This week the 2nd Circuit affirmed a lower court decision disqualifying Blank Rome based on the representation of another member of the opponent's corporate family. According the NYLJ:

"Judge Ralph K. Winter, Jr., writing for the unanimous appeals panel inGSI Commerce Solutions Inc. v. BabyCenter, LLC, 09-2790-cv, noted that while the Second Circuit has not before ruled on the issue of what he called "a corporate affiliate conflict," the issue has drawn extensive discussion at the American Bar Association and other courts, which in many cases have concluded that a law firm cannot take on a matter adverse to an affiliate if it diminishes the parent client's level of confidence in its lawyers."

What's interesting here, at the moment, is not the decision on the merits, although THAT is of interest to us casebook editors because circuit opinions on civil DQ are so hard to come by ever since the USSC held that DQ decisions in civil cases -  pro or con - are not immediately appealable. 

What is of immediate interest is the basis for the circuit's jurisdiction, which it does not (on my reading of the opinion published in the LJ) describe. It can only be a grant of authority to take an interlocutory appeal, in which case I say hooray, or a decision after final judgment. I hope we find out.