Rolls Royce Ex-Counsel Can’t Swap Sides, Texas Ct Says

A lawyer who switched sides against Rolls-Royce was disqualified by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas Mar. 12.

The case is a textbook example of a former-client conflict of interest, but that didn’t save Rolls-Royce from needing to litigate the issue.

Donald Little represented Rolls-Royce as in-house counsel from 1997–2008 and as outside counsel in a 2010 case where Rolls-Royce was alleged to have made false statements about “suspect” airplane parts. Rolls-Royce hired George Gage as an expert in that case.

In 2016, Gage, on behalf of the U.S., sued Rolls-Royce North America, Inc., Rolls-Royce Deutschland ...