Q: A person involved in CPS was charged with child endangerment. Her lawyer use to work for cps, defending them in court!
Conflict of interest??
A:
I'm not 100% clear on your description of the relationships but it is probably not a conflict. The most on-point rule is probably 1.10 of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct but also pay attention to Rule 1.06.
So with regard to 1.10, consider that a bunch of criminal defense attorneys are former prosecutors and it is not usually a problem. Of course if a prosecutor was in the middle of working on a case for the state but then quit and started defending the defendant in the exact same case she was previously prosecuting, that would be a conflict.
Often, when an attorney says they take CPS cases they mean ad litem appointments to represent the interest of the children, in which case they are not actually "working for" CPS at all and there is no conflict. The could be a conflict if the attorney actually represented CPS in a case against the exact parent who is now her client. Depending on how the attorney was involved, it could also run afoul of the attorney as a witness prohibition in rule 3.08.
A:
In the great majority of cases in which they are involved, CPS is not defended by any lawyer because CPS is rarely a defendant in a case. CPS is an agency of the State of Texas, like a municipal police department or sheriff's office. Like a police department, CPS investigates cases which may be then prosecuted by the County (or Criminal District) Attorney's Office.
So long as the lawyer did not prosecute the person you say is "involved with CPS" while that lawyer was working with CPS, there's probably not a conflict of interest. The person should ask her lawyer directly whether their earlier involvement with CPS might in any way constitute a conflict of interest. That kind of issue can usually be dealt with in just a few minutes by a frank and open discussion between the client and her lawyer.
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