In re Taylor, 67 S.W.3d 530 (Tex. App.—Waco 2002, no pet.).
Law Firm represented Husband and Wife in the preparation of their
estate plans, including wills and powers of attorney, as well as some
business matters. Later, Law Firm undertook to represent Husband in
divorce proceedings against Wife. Wife sought to have Law Firm
disqualified from representing Husband. The trial court denied her
motion and Wife appealed.
The appellate court conditionally granted Wife’s request for a writ of
mandamus directing the trial court to vacate the order denying Wife’s
motion to disqualify Law Firm. The record was clear that Law Firm
represented both Husband and Wife with regard to the business and estate
matters and thus there would be a conflict of interest for Law Firm to
represent Husband in the divorce action. Wife did not consent to Law
Firm’s representation of Husband in the divorce and thus Law Firm is
disqualified. The trial court’s failure to grant Wife’s motion was a
clear abuse of discretion.
Moral: An estate planner must be extremely leery of representing both
husband and wife in the estate planning process. If the attorney elects
to represent both spouses despite current or potential conflicts of
interest, the attorney will most likely be precluded from representing
either spouse separately with regard to matters related, even slightly,
to the estate planning process.