When Lawyers Move: Leaving a Firm and Clearing the Lateral Hire

Hope A. Comisky, Chair | Griesing Law, LLC

Hope A. Comisky is a Member of Griesing Law, LLC, where she chairs both the Ethics & Professional Responsibility practice group and the Employment practice group and serves as General Counsel to the firm. For more than ten years she has advised lawyers and law firms on the rules of professional conduct, issuing ethics opinions and training in-house lawyers. She also brings more than 35 years of employment and litigation experience to her practice.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Comisky earned her B.A. from Cornell University and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She then clerked for the Honorable Joseph L. McGlynn, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New York, and the District of Columbia, as well as before the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Third, Sixth, and Seventh Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania.

• Recognition & Leadership

For more than a decade, Ms. Comisky served as the lead professional responsibility attorney, and later General Counsel, for a law firm of more than 450 attorneys, where she also chaired the Professional Responsibility Committee. Over her career she has been a partner at three Philadelphia law firms.

Best Lawyers named her Philadelphia “Lawyer of the Year” for Labor and Employment and for Employment Law–Management, and she is regularly recognized by The Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers for employment law. Her other honors include selection as a Philadelphia Business Journal Best of the Bar honoree for employment litigation and as a Labor and Employment Star by Benchmark Litigation.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Comisky is an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she teaches professional responsibility seminars. She lectures and writes frequently on professional responsibility and employment law, has published several articles in the ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law, and has spoken for many years at the Northeast Regional Employment Law Institute on sexual harassment, defamation in the employment context, and tort claims arising from terminations.

She is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and chairs its Third Circuit selection committee. She also sits on the American Arbitration Association National Roster of Arbitrators and the CPR Panel of Distinguished Neutrals, and is part of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

• Experience

Ms. Comisky’s professional responsibility work centers on giving lawyers and firms real-time guidance on the rules of professional conduct. As in-house ethics counsel, she advised and delivered educational programs to hundreds of attorneys, and she continues to issue ethics opinions and train in-house lawyers.

On the employment side, she counsels clients on workplace issues, trains managers and staff, and advises on employment litigation strategy. She has also arbitrated and mediated both employment and commercial disputes.

Robert S. Tintner, Partner | Fox Rothschild LLP

Robert S. Tintner is a Partner in the Philadelphia office of Fox Rothschild LLP, where a core part of his practice is representing and advising lawyers and law firms. He handles professional responsibility and legal malpractice matters, represents lawyers before the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board and the Pennsylvania Board of Bar Examiners, and is regularly retained as an expert on legal ethics, professional responsibility, and legal malpractice.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Tintner received his J.D. in 1994 from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was a research assistant to Professor Lani Guinier, served as vice-chair for student affairs of the Graduate and Professional Students Assembly, and acted as liaison between graduate and professional students and the university trustees. He earned his B.A. in 1989 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences.

He is admitted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania and the District of New Jersey. He speaks French.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Tintner co-chairs the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Professional Guidance Committee. Within Fox Rothschild, he sits on the Professional Responsibility Committee, co-chairs the Pro Bono Committee, and serves on the Accounts Receivable, Billing and Collections Committee; he previously chaired the Summer Associate Coordinating Committee and served on the Recruitment Committee.

He has been listed in Super Lawyers for General Litigation in Pennsylvania (2022–2024) and was earlier named a Super Lawyers Rising Star in Litigation (2006). His service has been recognized with the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Citizens Bank Achievement Award (2020), the American Bar Association’s Making a Difference through Community Service Award (2016), the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania’s Pro Bono Roll of Honor (2015), and the Sean Peretta Award from the Young Lawyers Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association (2009).

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Tintner presents seminars across Pennsylvania on professional responsibility, avoiding legal malpractice, the Dragonetti Act, quiet title, and title insurance. He co-authored Wrongful Use of Civil Proceedings and Related Torts in Pennsylvania, published by The Legal Intelligencer.

He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the New Jersey Bar Association, and the Philadelphia Bar Association. In the community, he serves on the board of directors of the Volunteers for the Indigent Program in Philadelphia and on the Tangled Title Fund Committee.

• Experience

Mr. Tintner’s work for lawyers and law firms spans professional responsibility counseling, legal malpractice, disciplinary and bar admission proceedings, and claims for wrongful use of civil proceedings and abuse of process. He also handles defamation and First Amendment matters and is part of the firm’s Law Firm Defense & Risk Management practice.

SESSION 1 – Handling a Lawyer’s Departure: Client Notice, Files, and Firm Restrictions | Hope Comisky & Robert S. Tintner | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session explains what a lawyer and a firm must do when the lawyer leaves. It covers who must tell clients and when, who owns client files and how they move, and which post-departure restrictions and financial penalties are allowed under Model Rule 5.6. Attendees will learn how to give proper client notice, handle files correctly, and spot pay structures that violate the ethics rules. The session relies on various ethics opinions, including ABA Formal Opinions 99-414 and 489, North Carolina 2025 FEO 1, Texas Opinion 699 (2024), and NYC Bar Formal Opinion 2025-3 to give a current framework.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Screening the Lateral Hire and Defeating the Disqualification Motion | Hope Comisky & Robert S. Tintner | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session follows a lateral hire conflict from start to finish: deciding whether a prior matter is “substantially related,” applying each state’s screening rules, building an ethical wall that will hold up under court scrutiny, and responding when the other side moves to disqualify the firm. Attendees will learn how to vet lateral candidates, set up screens that comply with ABA Model Rule 1.10(a)(2) and court decisions, and use recent court decisions as a guide in responding when a motion is filed. Attendees leave with a screening checklist, tips to lower disqualification risks, and a plan for opposing or conceding a motion.