"Duane Morris, ordered out of a local arbitration proceeding last year after being sued by health care giant McKesson Corp. over a conflict of interest, has filed a motion for a new trial and asked that a permanent injunction against it be lifted.

McKesson contends that because Duane Morris represented one of its subsidiaries in a Pennsylvania bankruptcy case, it is barred from representing an Atlanta couple suing another McKesson subsidiary.

However, in a motion filed last month by Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore partner Emmett J. Bondurant on behalf of Duane Morris (which had represented itself in earlier proceedings), the firm notes that a Pennsylvania bankruptcy case cited as the root of the conflict has been settled, and argues that no attorney-client relationship now exists between Duane Morris and McKesson.

In response, Morris Manning & Martin partners Joseph R. Manning and Larry H. Kunin last month filed a brief on McKesson’s behalf resisting the move, asserting that Duane Morris’ arguments fly in the face of legal rules and precedent, amounting to a "hot-potato" stratagem in which a lawyer abandons one client in favor of another whose business may be more lucrative. " From Law.com