A federal judge is weighing whether to disqualify Motley Rice from dozens of opioid lawsuits because the firm obtained confidential information when representing the state of Hawaii, the District of Columbia and the City of Chicago in separate actions.
At a Feb. 12 hearing, U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, who is overseeing the opioid multidistrict litigation in the Northern District of Ohio, raised several questions to Motley Rice’s Linda Singer about her responsibilities as outside counsel in government lawsuits against the same defendants her firm has sued in the opioid cases—specifically, pharmacy benefit manager OptumRx Inc., owned by United HealthCare.
