Opinion ID: 2436005
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Disqualification of Attorneys

Text: We look to the Texas Rules of Professional Conduct for guidance in determining whether the Court should disqualify an attorney from representing a party in litigation. Henderson v. Floyd, 891 S.W.2d 252, 253 (Tex.1995); Spears v. Fourth Court of Appeals, 797 S.W.2d 654, 656 (Tex.1990). Rule 1.09 is the applicable rule, and provides in part: (a) Without prior consent, a lawyer who personally has formally represented a client in a matter shall not thereafter represent another person in a matter adverse to the former client:    (3) if it is the same or substantially related matter.    (b) except to the extent authorized by Rule 1.10 [successive government and private employment], when lawyers are or have become members of or associated with a firm, none of them shall knowingly represent a client if anyone of them practicing alone would be prohibited from doing so by paragraph (a). TEX.DISCIPLINARY R.PROF.CONDUCT 1.09 (1994), reprinted in TEX.GOV'T CODE ANN., tit. 2, subtit. G app. (Vernon Supp.1996) (State Bar Rules art. X, § 9). The party moving to disqualify an attorney must prove: (1) the existence of a prior attorney-client relationship; (2) in which the factual matters involved were so related to the facts in the pending litigation; (3) that it creates a genuine threat that confidences revealed to his former counsel will be divulged to his present adversary. NCNB Tex. Nat'l. Bank v. Coker, 765 S.W.2d 398, 400 (Tex.1989). If the moving party meets this burden, he is entitled to a conclusive presumption that confidences and secrets were imparted to the former attorney. Coker, 765 S.W.2d at 400.