Pollack v. Lytle’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 2 district · 78 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 87 later decisions — most recently May 2012 · most notably 30 Cal. 4th 167 - Small v. Fritz Companies, Inc. (2003), Cantu v. Resolution Trust Corp. (1992)
4 federal appellate · 2 district · 78 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on 7 Cal. 3d 94 - Barquis v. Merchants Collection Assn. · 6 Cal. 3d 784 - Fracasse v. Brent · 24 Cal. 3d 773 - Wyatt v. Union Mortgage Co. · 14 Cal. 3d 815 - Buckaloo v. Johnson · 12 Cal. 3d 915 - Glaire v. La Lanne-Paris Health Spa, Inc.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 87 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Admittedly, [the associate attorney] remains bound to act in the best interests of the client, but this creates no unavoidable conflict. Should he find that the principal attorney’s actions to date pose a potential danger to the client’s best interests, the agent-associate is duty bound to make the fullest disclosure of these material facts to the principal attorney. Since the principal attorney and the associate each owes the duty of loyalty to the client, the disclosure of information which reveals a potential danger to the client’s interests will normally prompt the principal attorney to act in protection of those interests. However, should the principal attorney choose to ignore the chent’s interests, the agent-associate remains free to terminate the agency relationship and withdraw as associate counsel. Furthermore, the associate attorney’s duty to exercise reasonable professional care, skill and diligence on behalf of the client is precisely equivalent to the duty he owes his principal in dealing with the subject matter of the agency. Accordingly, public policy considerations do not mandate that an associate attorney remain free from liability for a breach of the duty owed to his principal. To the contrary, whether associate counsel is brought in from outside the principal attorney’s office or is the junior associate in a firm of attorneys, the problems inherent in allowing an agent-associate to act in conflict with or contradiction of the principal attorney are manifes”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“The roles of successor and associate attorneys are decidedly different. In the fulfillment of his duty of undivided loyalty to the client, a successor attorney must view the client's situation as of the moment when he is engaged. Hence public policy requires that he not be subjected to any possible conflict of interest which may deter him from determining the best interests of the client by the possibility that he may be held liable for his acts by his predecessor.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“professional embarrassment; impaired reputation; [the plaintiffs] loss of professional confidence in him; the resulting exposure to malpractice liability with the attendant expenses and loss of business which may be attributable to the necessity of defending against [the malpractice] suit ...; and the loss of one-third of the $250,-000 settlement offer which he alleges [the plaintiff] would have accepted.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.