Source: https://dqed.com/2014/10/19/personal-interest-conflicts/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 20:02:43+00:00

Document:
Lawyers find themselves in various forms of conflicts of interest arising from their personal interests. For example, lawyers have their own financial interests (e.g., separate businesses) and legal obligations (e.g., those arising from the lawyer’s service on a board of directors). When those interests or obligations conflict with a current representation, disqualification battles are waged, albeit seemingly infrequently. The outcome often hinges on the degree of the perceived conflict between the personal and professional interests and (for imputation purposes) on the ability of another lawyer in the firm to take up the representation adverse to the lawyer’s interests.
 See, e.g., Restatement (Third) of Law Governing Lawyers § 125 (2000) (“Unless the affected client consents to the representation . . . , a lawyer may not represent a client if there is a substantial risk that the lawyer’s representation of the client would be materially and adversely affected by the lawyer’s financial or other personal interests.”); Restatement (Third) of Law Governing Lawyers § 135 (2000) (“Unless the affected client consents to the representation . . . , a lawyer may not represent a client in any matter with respect to which the lawyer has a fiduciary or other legal obligation to another if there is a substantial risk that the lawyer’s representation of the client would be materially and adversely affected by the lawyer’s obligation.”).
representation of the defendant somehow implicates counsel’s personal or financial interests, including a book deal, United States v. Hearst, 638 F.2d 1190, 1193 (C.A.9 1980), a job with the prosecutor’s office, Garcia v. Bunnell, 33 F.3d 1193, 1194–1195, 1198, n.4 (C.A.9 1994), the teaching of classes to Internal Revenue Service agents, United States v. Michaud, 925 F.2d 37, 40–42 (C.A.1 1991), a romantic “entanglement” with the prosecutor, Summerlin v. Stewart, 267 F.3d 926, 935–941 (C.A.9 2001), or fear of antagonizing the trial judge, United States v. Sayan, 968 F.2d 55, 64–65 (C.A.D.C. 1992).
Mickens, 535 U.S. at 174.
 [P]ersonal interest conflicts do not comprise a large number of reported federal disqualification cases. This is facially odd because personal interest conflicts are well-represented as bases for disciplinary action. As Professor Green noted years ago, perhaps the aggrieved clients (and their adversaries) lack the knowledge, ability, or incentives to bring disqualification motions for this misconduct. Bruce A. Green, Conflicts of Interest in Litigation: The Judicial Role, 65 Fordham L. Rev. 71, 81 (1996) (“Other categories of conflict of interest may well be more prevalent in litigation, yet evade judicial review. One example is the conflict between the lawyer’s own business interests and the interests of the lawyer’s client. The client is less likely to be aware of the facts underlying this type of conflict. If the client knows of the conflict and is troubled by it, the client will have no incentive to bring the conflict to the court’s attention rather than simply discharge the lawyer. At least in the civil context, no other party is likely to have the requisite knowledge and incentive either.”).
 See, e.g., Model Rules R. 1.10(a) (“While lawyers are associated in a firm, none of them shall knowingly represent a client when any one of them practicing alone would be prohibited from doing so by Rules 1.7 or 1.9, unless . . . the prohibition is based on a personal interest of the disqualified lawyer and does not present a significant risk of materially limiting the representation of the client by the remaining lawyers in the firm.”).

References: § 125
 § 135
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