In re Complex Asbestos Litigation

In In re Complex Asbestos Litigation (1991) 232 Cal. App. 3d 572, the court rejected the extension to nonlawyer employees of the standard disqualification rule applicable to attorneys who accept employment adverse to a former client. This broader disqualification rule mandates disqualification if the matter worked on for the former client is "substantially related" to the matter in which the attorney seeks to represent the adversary. (Complex Asbestos Litigation, supra, 232 Cal. App. 3d at p. 595-596.) A more stringent rule is necessary for attorneys switching sides because the client "cannot know what confidential information the former attorney acquired and carried into the new adverse representation." ( Id. at p. 595.) In contrast, when a nonlawyer employee leaves, the attorney is still available to the client and is in a good position to know what confidential information the departing employee was exposed to. (Ibid.)