Corporations Don't Like When Their Lawyers Switch Sides?

Corporations are so "in" these days.

Mitt Romney thinks they are people, the Supreme Court thinks they can vote, and Rick Perry thinks Texas should be able to execute one.

(Unfortunately, only one of the above is a joke.)

Even worse, according to Miami attorney and non-legendary comedian Robert Klein, corporations don't like it much when their lawyers switch sides:

Klein represents lawyers who faced resistance from former clients when they switched sides. In recent years he's witnessed a dramatic increase in suits and disqualification motions by corporations against former lawyers. He says the complaints are often strategic, and many are lodged by insurance companies.

Klein recently represented a medical malpractice defense lawyer who changed allegiance after representing doctors—through their insurance companies—for more than 25 years. When the work dried up as a result of tort reform, he decided to apply his expertise to plaintiffs cases. The first one he filed was met with a motion to disqualify from the insurance company. "They basically said to him, 'You can't do this line of work,' " Klein explains.

Efforts to prevent switching sides aren't limited to the insurance industry. In the past year, Klein has represented several lawyers who have been challenged by former corporate clients. Last year Klein was hired by Jonathan Aronson to defend him in three separate cases on motions to disqualify filed by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

 In Aronson's case, the cruise line apparently forgot that once they rolled up all their cases in-house, their former counsel would still need to "make a living."

So corporations can be mean-spirited, neglectful, and insensitive jerks -- in other words, they really are just like us!