Opinion
November 10, 1998
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Karla Moskowitz, J.).
The court properly granted disqualification of plaintiff's attorney in this action. During the course of the instant litigation, plaintiff's counsel, a solo practitioner, hired an associate who was leaving employment with defendant's attorneys, a law firm comprised of approximately 25 lawyers. The two law firms were also opposing counsel in other pending cases at the time the subject attorney joined plaintiff's counsel's firm. Although it does not appear that the subject attorney worked on the case at bar while with the law firm representing defendant, the law firm's informal setting, which included discussions among the attorneys and the fully accessible file room warrants disqualification here ( compare, Cardinale v. Golinello, 43 N.Y.2d 288, with Kassis v. Teacher's Ins. Annuity Assn., 243 A.D.2d 191, lv granted 253 A.D.2d 1004). We note that in two of the aforementioned pending cases, Yasin v. Manhattan Eye, Ear Throat Hosp. ( 254 A.D.2d 281) and Farley v. New York City Tr. Auth ( 253 A.D.2d 843), the Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed the disqualification of plaintiff's counsel herein.
Concur — Lerner, P. J., Sullivan, Nardelli and Rubin, JJ.