How have courts dealt with a motion to disqualify a lawyer for failing to waive a conflict of interest?

But here, the trial court never asked defendant whether he [14 N.Y.3d 16] would waive the conflict, much less conducted the hearing necessary to assure that any waiver was knowing and intelligent ( see People v. Gomberg, 38 N.Y.2d 307, 379 N.Y.S.2d 769, 342 N.E.2d 550 [1975]). Nor did the trial court inquire at all, so far as the record shows, into the prosecutor's allegations or their possible impact on the trial. The prosecutor's motion to disqualify was never ruled on, and the conflicted lawyer continued to participate, in a significant way, in defendant's defense. Under the circumstances, I do not see how we can affirm defendant's conviction without at least requiring a post-trial hearing into whether the conflict operated on the representation.

Our recent decision in People v. Ennis, 11 N.Y.3d 403, 410, 872 N.Y.S.2d 364, 900 N.E.2d 915 [2008] explains the framework we use to decide issues like this: