Until the California Supreme Court adopted the new California Rules of Professional Conduct (CRPC) in 2018, California did not have formalized conflict of interest rules (Rules 1.7, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, and 1.18) advising a California attorney or law firm on how to navigate a particular conflict of interest issue. Prior to 2018, California attorneys had to traverse those issues by navigating former CRPC Rule 3-310(B)(C) and a complex labyrinth of case law, and then bootstrapping a solution to the attorney’s conflict of interest issue. (Woods v. Superior Court (1983) 149 Cal.App.3d 931; Klemm v. Superior Court (1977) 75 Cal.App.3d 893; …
