In the case styled Kennedy v. MindPrint, the Fifth Circuit gave a bone to lawyers who leave their big firm dreams and find themselves representing a client with interests adverse to a big firm client.
Kirk Kennedy was an associate in Jackson Walker’s bankruptcy section for a relatively short period of time, but during that time one of the firm’s partners represented a client named MindPrint in bankruptcy court. Though Kennedy worked with this partner, he never became aware of the firm’s representation of MindPrint and was never privy to any of MindPrint’s confidential information.
