In Re Guaranty Insurance Services, Inc.

What happens when a law firm’s.efforts to screen a conflict fail, permitting a non-lawyer who worked on one side of a case at one firm to work on the other side of the same case at the opposing firm? Here, the trial court disqualified the second firm, reasoning there was a conclusive presumption that the nonlawyer had shared confidential information, despite evidence he had not. A divided court of appeals denied mandamus relief. 310 S.W.3d 630, 634. Given our prior decisions on the subject— particularly our recent decision in In re Columbia Valley Healthcare System, L.P., 320 S.W.3d 819…