Murphy & Demory, Ltd., Et Al. v. Admiral Daniel J. Murphy, U.S.N. (Ret.) Chancery No.

128219 (1994) WL 1031072 (Va. Cir. Ct. 1994)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Admiral (D) was an employee of Murphy & Demory, Ltd. (P). D decided to take control of P or to form his own firm. P got Siemer and Mendelson, two attorneys employed by Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro to provide legal counsel to help accomplish his goals. The problem with that arrangement was the small fact that Pillsbury also represented P. Pillsbury tasked Siemer with identifying conflicts in the dual representation of P and D. Mendelson was senior to Siemer in the Pillsbury firm. Siemer and Mendelson tried to recruit the director of P to support the takeover bid. They also organized employee meetings and coached D on verbiage that would entice employees of P to join D's competing company. They even helped employees of P write resignation letters, and wrote letters for current clients of P to authorize the transfer of files from P to D's new firm. Pillsbury was terminated by P. Siemer, and Mendelson sued seeking an order to dissolve P. P, in turn, filed suit against D and Pillsbury in part for malpractice.