On March 7, 2014, Judge Godbey issued an order (available here), in Micrografx v. Samsung. Samsung had moved to disqualify several of plaintiff’s attorneys and the attorneys’ law firm due to their past representation of Samsung. The disqualified attorneys had represented Samsung in several patent infringement lawsuits over the course of 10 years at their prior law firm, and, when they left that firm in 2011 to form their new law firm, they continued to represent Samsung. In 2013, Micrografx filed the instant lawsuit against Samsung.
Judge Godbey applied the “substantial relationship” test to determine whether a conflict of interest merits disqualification due to a former representation:
Under the “substantial relationship” test, a “party seeking to disqualify opposing counsel . . . must establish two elements: (1) an actual attorney-client relationship between the moving party and the attorney he seeks to disqualify and (2) a substantial relationship between the subject matter of the former and present representations.
Judge Godbey ultimately found that there was a substantial relationship between the subject matter of the prior representation of Samsung and the present case, and accordingly disqualified the attorneys and their firm. Judge Godbey stayed the case for 30 days to permit Micrografx time to obtain substitute counsel.