Counsel’s Past Representation of Parent Warrants Disqualification in Litigation Involving Subsidiary

The court granted defendant's motion to disqualify plaintiff's newly substituted counsel and rejected plaintiff's argument that its counsel represented a company other than defendant. "[Plaintiff's counsel] has provided records which indicate that all correspondence was directed to [defendant's parent]. It is undisputed that [the parent] is merely a holdings company and that its subsidiaries are the operating companies. . . . It is evident that the work [counsel] performed at the behest of [the parent] was, in fact, related to [defendant's] technology and, specifically, to the technology at issue in this litigation. . . . Perhaps even more significant is that the inventors of the technology at issue in this litigation were also technically employed by [the parent] even though it is undisputed that the technology belongs to [defendant]. . . . Finally, the Court finds it interesting that many of [counsel's] bills were paid, not by [the parent], but by [another subsidiary]. The fact that the invoices were paid by yet another, separate entity, and the fact that [counsel] did not object to receiving payment in this manner, further supports the conclusion that [the parent] was not [counsel's] true client."

Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. v. Asurion Mobile Applications, Inc., 3-11-cv-05811 (NJD October 11, 2012, Order) (Bongiovanni, M.J.).