Over the last few months, conflict of interest for brokers representing two sides in a deal has seen some serious attention in courtrooms.

JLL had to forfeit more than $800,000 in commission and interest a landlord didn't pay on a leasing arrangement. The company, which did not reply to multiple contacts from GlobeSt.com, had represented both the landlord and the tenant in a 2018 Washington, D.C. office space lease but allegedly hadn't followed a local law that required clear disclosure in documents.

Then there's CBRE, which during the summer got hit with a lawsuit claiming that it represented both sides in a lease and misled the owner on the tenant's financial condition. Responding to a question from GlobeSt.com, CBRE sent a statement saying the "plaintiffs wrongly stated that CBRE was the broker for both" and so was not subject to the same D.C. conflict of interest statute. The company would not make any further statement on the larger issue of dual representation.