Legal Question in Business Law in California

The answer depends on the context in which you and the attorney spoke and what was said. If you talked about the case in the context of possibly hiring him or her to represent you, I'd say there's certainly the appearance of impropriety if not an actual ethical violation. Much will depend on the specific information you provided to the attorney, i.e., whether you provided confidential information germane to the case.

If you simply spoke casually with the attorney about the dispute with no intent to engage the attorney to represent you, there's probably no restriction on him or her working for the other side. However, it's still the kind of situation most attorneys I know (myself included) would certainly avoid.

There are other ethical considerations that might come into play, such as whether the attorney improperly solicited employment from the defendant after learning of the dispute. However, many of those issues would mainly be of concern to the defendant .

Presuming you have counsel on board now to represent you in the lawsuit, talk with him or her about your contact with the other attorney. They should know what to do.

Best regards,

Tom Newton

Sometimes not, but it depends upon the timing, circumstances, extent of the conversation, understanding of the attorney and the party at the time of the conversation, and related factors. The general rule is that an attorney who has come into confidential information about a prospective client's strategies, defenses, weaknesses of his case, etc. where there was an express or understood confidentiality to the information imparted, cannot thereafter represent an interest adverse to the party with whom the discussion was held. Indeed, the law considers an attorney-client relationship to arise from such discussions, whether or not the party eventually retains the lawyer.

On the other hand, if Party X calls around town and talks to a half dozen lawyers for five or ten minutes each on the phone about representing him in a lawsuit with Party Y, in all probability none of those lawyers is going to be barred from representing Party Y in the suit.