When a client chooses to leave a law firm with an associate, does the associate breach his fiduciary duty to the client's business interests?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from Loreto v. Little et al, 2010 ONSC 755 (CanLII):
The judge went on to quote with approval the following excerpt from Vertlieb Anderson v. Nelford,[1989] B.C.J. No. 2084: If a client chooses to leave with an associate, the associate is obviously taking a business advantage which belonged to the firm. However, as set out in Can. Aero, there is a way of taking a business advantage which breaches one’s fiduciary duty and a way that does not. The unique aspect of the associate’s simultaneous and overriding fiduciary duty to his client means that it is the client and not the firm who actually sanctions the taking of the business advantage.
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