hot potato rule
hot-potato rule. The principle that a lawyer may not unreasonably withdraw from representing a client. • The term comes from the rule’s classic formulation: “a firm may not drop a client like a ‘hot potato,’ especially if it is in order to keep happy a far more lucrative client.” Picker Int’l, Inc. v. Varian Assocs., Inc., 670 F.Supp. 1363, 1365 (N.D. Ohio 1987).