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Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

1986

Attorney disqualification

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In Defense Of A Double Standard In The Rules Of Ethics: A Critical Reevaluation Of The Chinese Wall And Vicarious Disqualification, Frances Witty Hamermesh Oct 1986

In Defense Of A Double Standard In The Rules Of Ethics: A Critical Reevaluation Of The Chinese Wall And Vicarious Disqualification, Frances Witty Hamermesh

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note suggests that no change is warranted at the present time; courts should not adopt the Chinese wall defense to vicarious disqualification of private firms. The Chinese wall should, however, continue to operate as an internal device for protection of confidentiality. As such, it encourages firms to avoid disqualification by obtaining client consent to successive representation. Neither the historical record of the work of the Commission on the Evaluation of Professional Standards (the Kutak Commission), the empirical evidence currently available, nor the pragmatic arguments offered by many commentators justify an exception to, or modification of, the standard of imputed …