What is the test for establishing a conflict of interest between a plaintiff and his lawyer?

As the trial court acknowledged, these agreements "grant[ed] [Owen] exclusive rights to exploit her clients story for her benefit," creating the potential for a conflict of interest. But to establish a deprivation of his constitutional right to counsel, defendant must show more than a " theoretical division of loyalties "; he must show that counsel "labored under an actual conflict of interest that affected counsels performance . " ( People v. Doolin (2009) 45 Cal.4th 390, 417, 87 Cal.Rptr.3d 209, 198 P.3d 11.) Or as the trial court put it, to succeed on the conflict claim, "there has to be some showing of cause and effect, in other words, that the act or omission of the lawyer in seeking the benefits of the agreement has placed her clients defense in jeopardy." As the trial court explained, no such showing had been made here. Indeed, the agreements were made some two months after the jury rendered its penalty verdict

[456 P.3d 988]