Opposing the government's attempt to disqualify counsel for former Sen. Brian Joyce, Attorney Wood, on behalf of MACDL, co-signed this brief written by Jack Falvey and a team from Goodwin Procter in in the federal criminal fraud case of former state senator Brian Joyce.
The government moved to have his retained counsel disqualified because counsel made a defense of his actions in a state ethics investigation and in the press. The government argued that counsel had become a vehicle of Joyce's fraud. Needlessly disqualifying counsel could encourage the government “to ‘manufacture’ a conflict in order to prevent a defendant from having a particularly able defense counsel at his side.” United States v. Wheat, 486 U.S. 153, 163 (1988).
This would set a very dangerous precedent for the 6th Amendment right to counsel. MACDL was joined by the ACLU and MBA in opposing this government overreach.