In re Marriage of Stephenson

State: Illinois

Court: 2nd District Appellate

Docket No: 2-10-1214 NRel

Case Date: 08/12/2011

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Appellate Court

In re Marriage of Stephenson, 2011 IL App (2d) 101214

Appellate Court Caption

In re MARRIAGE OF ALICIA STEPHENSON, Petitioner and Counterrespondent-Appellant, and RICHARD STEPHENSON, Respondent and Counterpetitioner-Appellee.

District & No.

Second District Docket No. 2-10-1214 August 12, 2011 The trial court abused its discretion in granting respondent's petition to disqualify petitioner's attorney on the ground that his representation of petitioner violated the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct due to a conflict of interest, even though her counsel was in the same firm as the husband of respondent's counsel, since respondent failed to establish a former attorney-client relationship between himself and petitioner's counsel, there was no evidence petitioner's counsel acquired confidential information from the purported relationship with respondent, and respondent failed to establish that their former and subsequent relationships were substantially related. Appeal from the Circuit Court of McHenry County, No. 09-DV-851; the Hon. Gerald M. Zopp, Jr., Judge, presiding.

Filed Held
(Note: This syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.)

Decision Under Review

Judgment

Reversed and remanded.

Counsel on Appeal

Jennifer J. Gibson, of Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle, of Crystal Lake, for appellant. Paulette M. Gray, of Law Offices of Paulette M. Gray LLC, of Crystal Lake, for appellee.

Panel

JUSTICE McLAREN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Justices Bowman and Schostok concurred in the judgment and opinion.

OPINION

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