by Traverse Legal, reviewed by Enrico Schaefer - November 15, 2006 - 'The Greatest' Philosophy
For those of you who have been following, you can see the history of litigation brought by my former firm against my firm for a quantum meruit fee on a particular case where we believe the former firm breached its ethical duties to the client. By way of brief synopsis, the former firm in its effort to try and retain the client, failed to advise the client of their right to select me as counsel. They, from my point of view, purposely deprived the client of information and proposed an illegal contract which would have precluded the clients’ choice.
The former firm’s position has been that it had no duty to inform the client that they had had a right to choose counsel. The former firm views that client as property of the firm. They brought a motion for partial summary disposition asking the Court to rule that they didn’t breach their ethical duties. That hearing occurred yesterday. The Court slammed my former firm and affirmatively held that there is an absolute duty by the former firm to advise the client of their right to select counsel. There is some great language in the hearing transcript which I will provide. Essentially, the Court confirmed my belief that a law firm may not disadvantage the client in any way while trying to serve its own interest in a fee.
This is a great day for the firm and exactly what I hoped would occur. For a while, I thought I was the only one who believed that you have to put your client ahead of your own interest. See my prior post on "Just Think of the Fucking Client".
As a founding partner of Traverse Legal, PLC, he has more than thirty years of experience as an attorney for both established companies and emerging start-ups. His extensive experience includes navigating technology law matters and complex litigation throughout the United States.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by attorney Enrico Schaefer, who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a practicing Business, IP, and Technology Law litigation attorney.
