Professor Deborah Rhode, director of the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, is quoted in the Daily Journal on an attorney's obligation to give informed consent if a conflict of interest arises during a case. Sara Randazzo filed this story:

Lawyers representing a now-bankrupt Silicon Valley technology company Monday filed an amended malpractice suit against Simpson Thacher & Bartlet alleging the firm had a "debilitating conflict of interest" in representing the company and its chief executive officer, who was defrauding the company.

Simpson Thacher represented Fremont-based PrediWave Corp. and Jianping "Tony" Qu, the company's president and CEO, for 14 months in 2004 and 2005 as general corporate counsel and as litigation counsel in a lawsuit against New World TMT Ltd., a Hong Kong technology and communications company.

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Deborah Rhode, a legal ethicist and director of the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, said attorneys have an obligation to give informed consent if a possible conflict emerges. "The classic conflict is the corporation might have a claim against the CEO," Rhode said. If such a problem arises, "You may be disqualified from representing both [the company and executive]."