David Kluft asks: “If all the local lawyers were conflicted, can I base my fee request on national rates?” —

• “A MT contractor was part of a big dispute with Exxon over the construction of an oil refinery in Billings. The contractor tried to hire MT counsel capable of handling a complex construction dispute, but all the firms big enough to do the job were conflicted because they already represented Exxon itself or the other subcontractors that were party to the dispute.”
• “Instead, the contractor hired some big firm lawyers from DC, NYC and Denver. The contractor won the case and asked for attorneys’ fees. Exxon argued that the usual default rule requires the Court to adjust the big firm national rates of the contractor’s lawyers downward to rates of the ‘relevant community,’ i.e., Billings, MT.”
• “The Court disagreed and found that it was appropriate to depart from the usual default rule in this case and regard the ‘relevant community’ as the ‘national bar’ because of the unavailability of unconflicted MT counsel and because of the specialized construction litigation expertise of the lawyers who were retained.”
• Decision: here.

“Clark Hill Exits NJ Health Noncompete Dispute After DQ Bid” —

• “A New Jersey federal judge has signed off on a request from Clark Hill PLC to withdraw as counsel for a nursing home operator amid an adversary’s disqualification motion in a noncompete dispute with a medical consulting company.”
• “The ruling concluded a dispute over whether Clark Hill faced a conflict of interest because of its past representation of Atlas co-defendant Christopher Savino, a former Marquis Health Consulting Services LLC employee accused of violating a noncompete agreement after leaving the company to work for Atlas.”
• “Clark Hill rejected Marquis Health’s conflict allegations in a March filing, arguing there was no violation of New Jersey’s Rules of Professional Conduct because Savino and Atlas remained aligned on the core claims in Marquis’ first amended complaint.”
• “The firm argued that there was no conflict because it did not have confidential information from Savino. But after appearing before Judge Day on May 12 for argument on Marquis’ disqualification motion, Clark Hill moved the next day to withdraw from representing Atlas entirely.”
• “In the May 13 filing, Clark Hill attorney Vanessa M. Kelly told the court that Atlas had consented to the substitution and had retained Fox Rothschild to take over the matter. Kelly further told the court that Fox Rothschild already had entered a partial appearance in the litigation concerning Savino’s crossclaims and would now ‘be taking over the entirety of this case.’”

“Connecticut’s biggest law firm defuses ethics dispute involving former chief justice” —

• “The state’s biggest law firm has avoided an embarrassing legal fight over whether it broke a fundamental ethics rule by asking former Chief Justice Richard Robinson, then a recently hired partner, to work on an appeal in a case that had been argued before him previously when he led the Supreme Court.”
• “Day Pitney filed papers in Superior Court in Hartford Wednesday withdrawing as plaintiff’s counsel in a hard-fought, 13-year old contract dispute between partners breaking up their private equity firm. The motion to withdraw was filed after the judge presiding over the suit scheduled a mid-June hearing on a demand by opposing counsel to have Day Pitney disqualified for an ethics violation involving Robinson.”
• “‘In light of Day Pitney’s withdrawal of its appearance, the Court should cancel the evidentiary hearing scheduled for June 16 and 17, 2026 on the Defendants’ motion to disqualify Day Pitney,’ the motion to withdraw said. ‘The withdrawal renders the Defendants’ motion to disqualify moot.’”
  “In the suit underlying the disqualification fight, CCP Equity Partners founder and Day Pitney client John Clinton sued three other partners, who are represented by West Hartford attorney Garrett Flynn, along with Barbara Schellenberg and David Sabel of New Haven.”
• “The suit has reached the state Supreme Court twice. On the first occasion, in 2022, Robinson was chief justice and led the panel that heard arguments. The court did not issue a decision that time. After conferring, Robinson and the other justices returned the case to the lower court for further proceedings.”
• “Robinson joined Day Pitney after retiring from the Supreme Court in 2024. Billing records show he was involved with the case soon after, as the firm prepared to bring it to the Supreme Court a second time. That time the justices – three of whom sat with Robinson during the earlier appeal – ruled on the merits of the case. They returned it to Superior Court again for a new trial, which is now scheduled for November.”
• “The partners represented by Flynn moved in late February to have Robinson and Day Pitney disqualified for violating a rule of conduct that bars judges from involvement in cases over which they formerly presided.”
• “The Connecticut Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers say ‘a lawyer shall not represent anyone in connection with a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially as a judge . . . unless all parties to the proceeding give informed consent, confirmed in writing.’”
  “The partners claim in a court filing that Robinson gave Day Pitney an unfair advantage because he could provide insight into how the other justices viewed contract law as applied to a case being prepared for the Supreme Court a second time.”
• “Day Pitney opposed disqualification. It acknowledged a violation of the rules of conduct, but claimed that Robinson’s contribution to the appeal was so inconsequential that a legal sanction punishing anyone for an ethics violation would not be justified.”
• “Records filed with the court show Robison billed 15.7 hours to the case at $1,110 an hour.”
• “‘Contrary to the Defendants’ speculation, Chief Justice Robinson’s contributions to Day Pitney’s representation of Clinton were minimal and immaterial. Therefore, his prior judicial role should not disqualify the entire firm from continuing to represent Clinton,’ Day Pitney told the court”