Nemours Foundation v. Gilbane
United States District Court for the District of Delaware
632 F.Supp. 418 (1986)
During construction litigation between Nemours (plaintiff) and general contractor Gilbane, attorney Paul Bradley had earlier represented co-defendant Furlow, reviewing confidential documents and strategy shared with Nemours while their interests were aligned against Gilbane. Bradley later left that firm and joined Biggs & Battaglia, which represented Pierce, a party whose interests became adverse to Furlow's. Neither Bradley nor Biggs knew of the conflict until after he was hired, and Bradley was promptly walled off from the matter. Nemours moved to disqualify Biggs from representing Pierce.
Whether an attorney must be disqualified from representing a client when the subject matter of a pending suit, in which the attorney now represents an interest adverse to a former client, is substantially related to the attorney's earlier representation.