In re Sofaer
District of Columbia Court of Appeals
728 A.2d 625 (1999)
While serving as State Department legal adviser, Abraham Sofaer (defendant) advised on the government's response to a subpoena theorizing advance warning of the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and attended confidential briefings on the related criminal investigation; after leaving for private practice, Sofaer and his new firm were hired by the Libyan government to represent it in litigation arising from the same bombing. The D.C. Board of Professional Responsibility (plaintiff) charged Sofaer with violating Rule 1.11(a), which bars an attorney from working on a matter he previously worked on for the government, and directed bar counsel to formally admonish him; Sofaer appealed.
Whether an attorney is prohibited from representing a private client on a matter that is the same as, or substantially similar to, a matter he previously and substantially worked on as a government employee.