This case takes a graph to try to understand.  Here is a legal malpractice case in Texas, involving BP and an explosion.

Plaintiffs hire attorney Krist to sue BP, after an explosion.  Krist successfully sues BP and settles the case, taking no fee.  Krist represented the husband only, and not the wife in a loss of consortium claim.

Then Krist moves to the other side, and starts to defend BP in other explosion cases.  Plaintiff sues Krist, using a rival and antagonistic attorney to sue.  Claims that Krist settled for too little, should have represented wife, and sold plaintiff out.

"The high-stakes battle over whether Houston lawyer Ronald D. Krist should help defend BP from suits filed over a deadly explosion at the company’s Texas City refinery took another twist on Monday when a former client who had hired Krist’s firm to sue BP over the explosion filed a professional negligence suit against Krist, the firm and others.

Jose L. Elizondo, who filed Jose L. Elizondo v. Ronald D. Krist, et al. in state court in Harris County on Aug. 20, is one of four individuals who hired the Krist Law Firm to seek damages from BP for the 2005 explosion, which killed 15 people and caused injuries and property damage.

Elizondo is represented by John M. O’Quinn and Michael J. Lowenberg of the O’Quinn Law Firm of Houston.

In early 2006, Elizondo and three other clients accepted settlements — without filing suits — that Ronald Krist negotiated with BP. Krist subsequently signed on to help defend BP in other litigation related to the explosion. "