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Lawyer switches sides and wins
An American federal judge has ruled that it was OK for a lawyer to switch from one client to another.One of Folklaw's favourite journals, The Hollywood Reporter, has covered the story of the…
Lawyers Weekly
An American federal judge has ruled that it was OK for a lawyer to switch from one client to another.
Bergstein was a wee bit peeved with the fact that one of the lawyers representing more than two-dozen creditors in the involuntary bankruptcy proceedings used to work for him.
To make matters worse, Bergstein lost that case and also lost an initial motion to have his turncoat lawyer, Susan Tregub, and her splendidly named firm, Levene Neale Bender Yoo & Brill, disqualified from the case. He then filed an appeal against that decision to the US District Court. Bergstein's new lawyers argued that the firm "had acted in concert with Tregub, knowingly using confidential information to prepare the involuntary bankruptcy petitions".
Despite the objections of the film executive, US District Court Judge Philip Gutierrez denied the motion, stating that "there was no transfer of confidential information ... sufficiently material to the case to ... support disqualification".
Folklaw usually thinks it is despicable to switch sides, holding in utter contempt people who change football teams to support a more successful side, or radio shock jocks who may or may not change opinions based on sponsorship agreements.
However, winners are grinners, and Tregub would be smiling now.
