Local rule 1.4. provides in pertinent part that an" attorney who has appeared as attorney of record for a party may be relieved or displaced only by an order of the Court . . . ."  Accordingly, court approval is needed to substitute one attorney for another attorney who has appeared, even if from the same law firm (because individual attorneys, not law firms, appear as counsel of record).  In many instances where one attorney at a firm is being removed while one or more other attorneys at the same firm continue to represent a party, a simply letter motion to the magistrate judge explaining why the attorney should be removed (e.g., has left the firm) is sufficient.