The Law Society Council finally passed new conflict and confidentiality rules last week - some four years after the process of re-writing the rulebook began.

Key changes include the introduction of a definition of conflict. Firms will be permitted with client consent to act for two or more clients who are competing bidders in a private auction or an insolvency, while information barriers - or 'Chinese walls' - will also be permitted in limited circumstances.


Andrew Holroyd, chairman of the Society's standards board, told the council: 'The problem is that [until now] we have not provided a framework for the increasingly complicated legal marketplace - we have not provided a proper framework for the larger firms to manage difficult situations, nor for small firms. This will help us all.


'[The changes] will be of benefit to clients. They will be able to waive full confidentiality rights for the benefit of carrying on and instructing the solicitor of their choice.'


Mr Holroyd added that the new rules would have successfully dealt with the recent Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer case, where the City firm was blocked by the Court of Appeal from acting for Philip Green on his £9 billion bid for former client Marks & Spencer.


The new rules, which require the approval of the Master of the Rolls, were brought in amid criticism that City firms were widely flouting the old rules, which were seen as difficult to enforce.


The old rules had also been attacked for lacking clarity and for being very difficult for larger firms to comply with.


Meanwhile, an amendment - put forward by Helen Cousins, a member of the Society's criminal law committee - introducing a presumption of a conflict of interest in criminal matters when representing more than one client in the same proceedings also got the go-ahead.


This presumption will only be rebutted if the solicitor can show that special circumstances apply and these circumstances have been noted on the file.