Baker & Hostetler has failed to convince a California judge to disqualify Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht from a $15 million lawsuit that accuses Baker & Hostetler of bungling a potential malpractice case against Jones Day.

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that available evidence didn’t show a conflict arising from the move by Baker & Hostetler’s former appellate group co-chair Tom Warren to Pierce Bainbridge. The suit, by Adam DeVone, who owned an insurance brokerage known as PenBen, faults Baker & Hostetler for not holding Jones Day accountable for PenBen’s loss at trial to a group of former employees who allegedly poached clients on their way out the door.