I had a somewhat comparable experience working for an agency. The agency and their client I was working for had some sort of angry falling-out (never discovere

I had a somewhat comparable experience working for an agency. The agency and their client I was working for had some sort of angry falling-out (never discovered what triggered that war of nasty words). The client liked my work so I got the agency to release both the client and myself for our respective contracts - got that it writing on their letterhead to be extra sure. Then continued working for the client - splitting the agency's markup between us, i.e. I got half the markup and the client saved their half of the markup. Ended up working for that client for over 2 years and still in touch with the project manager who was caught in that bind at the time.