Scala’s Original Beef & Sausage Co., LLC v. Alvarez d/b/a Michaelangelo Foods, No. 09 C 7353, Slip. Op. (N.D. Ill. Dec. 10, 2009) (Dow, J.).

Judge Dow denied defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiff’s counsel. Plaintiff’s counsel’s firm represented the individual defendant and a prior company in a 2006 matter. But that case, a $15,000 contract dispute, ended after counsel spent less than 25 hours on the case. It was irrelevant that while counsel’s firm previously represented the individual defendant, counsel never personally represented the individual defendant. The Court, however, was unable to infer that counsel’s firm had received confidential information about the individual defendant’s finances. Further, the individual defendant’s businesses in the two cases were different. And the cases were remote in time and focused on different subject matter – a contract dispute in the earlier case, and contract and trademark issues regarding a new entity in the second.