Attorney Conflicts of Interest—The Use of 'Screening' in the Corporate/Securities Setting

摘要

The practice of law is increasingly being dominated by "mega firms" with offices in many cities as well as foreign countries. Firms like Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, Baker Botts, Baker and McKenzie, Foley and Lardner, Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, Greenberg Traurig, Holland and Knight, Jones Day, Kutak Rock, Skadden Arps, Vinson & Elkins, and Weil Gotshal & Manges, to name a few, have hundreds of attorneys spread nationally and internationally.1 Their clients, while referred to as firm clients, are often represented through a single office independent of other offices of the firm. Firms make lateral hires on a regular basis at their many different offices both within and outside of the United States. Mergers also have become a regular feature whereby smaller firms and specialized practices are being absorbed by bigger firms.2 There is as well increasing mobility in the practice. Attorneys not only are moving from one firm to another but also from outside to inside counsel and from government service to private firm practice and vice versa. A major recurrent dilemma is conflicts of interest.