The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has updated its guidance on Confidentiality of client information. This includes guidance on submissions to legal directories, information barriers, due diligence on law firm mergers and acquisitions, and responding to third party complaints to the Legal Ombudsman. A link is on www.legalrisk.co.uk/News.
Two overseas conflicts cases may be of passing interest. Revolaze, L.L.C. v. Dentons US L.L.P., 2022-Ohio-1392 is a decision of the Ohio Court of Appeals, Eighth District, in the United States, arising from a patent infringement claim. The court held that US and Canadian members of a verein were to be treated as a single law firm for conflict purposes. The case involved use of laser abrading technology to create the worn and faded look on new jeans and other denim garments, instead of the traditional sandblasting or hand sanding (which carried the risk of silicosis, and may result in death). The judgment also provides an interesting insight into litigation funding.
Margetak v Hughes, 2022 ABPC 91 is a Canadian decision on its particular facts but of passing interest in relation to confidential information which might have been acquired from a previous retainer for a different party. The court rejected a husband’s application to disqualify a law firm acting for a wife in matrimonial proceedings, having failed to prove that the firm had acquired confidential information relating to his finances when acting for his previous wife.
Links to the cases are on our dedicated Conflicts resource page, www.legalrisk.co.uk/Conflicts.
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