PROTECTING CLIENTS’ IDENTITIES FROM COLLEAGUES
There can be circumstances in which a fee-earner does not wish his colleagues to know the identity of one of his clients. Such secrecy is usually required in highly sensitive cases or, as one solicitor put it, ‘where we need to keep the element of surprise, such as a hostile take-over, or if the client doesn’t want anyone to know what he is up to.’[353] Sometimes a firm may be involved in a project which is so sensitive that only the senior or managing partner and the feeearners directly involved in the matter will know about it.
In these circumstances a conflict check in respect of other matters will not reveal the necessary information because the names and parties involved in the ‘secret’ project will not be on the database. Such highly confidential information will be kept in a file to which access is severely restricted, perhaps referred to as a ‘black book’ or ‘black box’. Firm 29 outlined what happens in these circumstances:Should someone in the firm complete a conflict check and information contained in the black book be relevant to them, they will be told that there might be a problem. No reasons would be given but an independent third party, usually a senior or managing partner, would act as a go-between for the fee-earners involved and would establish whether there was an actual conflict without revealing any information to either side.
Thus, once again, firms relied on individual members to keep confidential information acquired from prospective clients to themselves.