Can a predecessor attorney bring an indemnification claim against a successor attorney?

Again, one of the two policy considerations that led courts to prohibit indemnification claims brought by a predecessor attorney against a successor attorney was that such a claim could create a conflict of interest for the client's new attorney. The conflict of interest we are concerned about is not a conflict between an attorney's duty to the client and the attorney's purported duty to concurrent counsel or cocounsel, as we make clear in the companion case, Beck v. Wecht, supra, 28 Cal.4th 289, 121 Cal. Rptr.2d 384, 48 P.3d 417. Rather, the conflict of concern is a conflict between an attorney's duty to the client and the attorney's self-interest. Provencher gives us no reason, and we have not discovered any reason ourselves, to believe that an attorney's self-interest will interfere with loyalty to the client just because the attorney, as a joint tortfeasor, may face an indemnification claim if the client sues the attorney's

[121 Cal.Rptr.2d 381]

concurrent counsel or cocounsel for malpractice.

[121 Cal.Rptr.2d 381]