Lawyers' Professional Liability

Carol VanderWoude (Philadelphia, PA) and Aaron Moore (Wilmington, DE) secured a Delaware Supreme Court affirmance of the dismissal of a complex legal malpractice claim. The plaintiffs—seven affiliated property development companies and their owners—had been sued by their bank for defaulting on multiple credit lines totaling about $7 million plus attorneys’ fees. Our client defended those suits, which ultimately settled for the full amount owed, plus interest and fees. The plaintiffs later alleged malpractice, claiming our client should have advised an earlier settlement to avoid legal fees, expert costs, additional interest, and lost business opportunities. The trial court dismissed the claims because the plaintiffs’ expert lacked relevant experience and their damages were speculative, and the Supreme Court affirmed.

Aaron Moore (Wilmington, DE) obtained dismissal of an unjust enrichment claim brought by a condominium unit owner against the attorneys who represented her condominium association. The unit owner claimed that the law firm was liable to her for unjust enrichment in connection with legal fees it received from the association for legal services provided in their efforts to collect on past due assessments owed by the unit owner. Pursuant to the association’s governing documents, the charges were passed on to the unit owner. The court agreed that the fees paid to our client by the condominium association were properly earned.

Michael Jacobson (New York, NY) obtained dismissal of a legal malpractice suit that also alleged breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent misrepresentation, and a Judiciary Law § 487 violation. The plaintiff had retained our clients to pursue an employment discrimination claim, which was compelled to arbitration and ultimately rejected after a four-day hearing. We argued the malpractice complaint lacked allegations of negligence and causation, the additional claims were duplicative, and § 487 does not apply to arbitration. The court agreed and dismissed all claims.

Maria Nudelman and Michael Jacobson (both of New York, NY) were successful in having their motion to dismiss granted in a legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty case. Our client represented the plaintiffs in an underlying landlord-tenant proceeding commenced against them by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development of the City of New York (HPD). The plaintiffs allegedly failed to correct over 20 Building Code violations. Our client was retained by the managing agent of the buildings and appeared as counsel and executed a Consent Order on behalf of all the respondents proceeding, including the plaintiffs. The Consent Order gave the plaintiffs and the other respondents until June 30, 2021, to pay $37,500 to HPD, and if they failed to make the payment, a judgment for that amount could be entered against them. The plaintiffs claimed that they never knew about the Consent Order and as a result, a $375,000 judgment was entered against them. We moved to dismiss, arguing that the claim was barred by the statute of limitations and that the breach of fiduciary duty claim was simply duplicative of the malpractice claim and should also be dismissed. The court agreed and dismissed both counts.

Diane Toner and Matthew Flanagan (both of New York, NY) were successful in defending an appeal from the denial of the plaintiff’s motion to set aside the verdict following unanimous jury verdict in favor of our clients. The plaintiff, Hyon S. Yi, as administrator of the Estate of Chin W. Yi, commenced this action against our clients alleging causes of action for legal malpractice, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and a violation of Judiciary Law § 487. The plaintiff alleged that our clients committed legal malpractice by: (1) failing to assert claims in the underlying action; (2) changing the terms of the retainer agreement to a contingency agreement after discovering that settlement of the underlying action was imminent; (3) failing to assert direct shareholder claims against the corporate defendant in the underlying action; (4) failing to assert fiduciary duty claims against the majority shareholders of the corporate defendant; (5) failing to seek a receivership or attach the assets of Eastern Farms; (6) and failing to demand prejudgment interest in the second underlying action brought in 2015. The jury found in favor of our clients on all counts. Diane Toner was able to secure dismissal of the plaintiff’s appeal by arguing that the order denying the plaintiff’s motion to set aside the jury verdict was an intermediate order from which there was no right of direct appeal once the final judgment was entered, and that plaintiff did not appeal from the final judgment. The Appellate Division agreed and dismissed the appeal.

Jack Slimm (Mount Laurel, NJ) successfully defended an attorney who specializes in the representation of school boards in a grievance before the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics (OAE). The grievance was filed by a plaintiff’s attorney, who argued that our client violated the rules of professional conduct in connection with his arguments to the court at the trial level and on appeal. The OAE rejected the grievance, finding that the allegations of racist and misogynistic behavior by defense counsel were unfounded, that the attorney did not disrespect the court either at trial or on appeal, that the attorney did not lie about the defendant’s defenses, and did not make any false statements of fact in response to the plaintiff’s grievance. 

Josh J.T. Byrne (Philadelphia, PA) won a motion to dismiss a complaint with prejudice in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in a legal malpractice action stemming out of the criminal investigation into Nicole Daedone and her “orgasmic meditation” company OneTaste.

Scott Eberle (Pittsburgh, PA) achieved a dismissal of a complaint alleging abuse of process on preliminary objections in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County. The complaint alleged the defendant attorney abused process by filing a meritless complaint that contained false allegations for the purpose of “extorting” the insurance company and earning a fee. The trial court found that the plaintiff’s claim failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, stating that the primary focus of the plaintiff’s averments were not on alleged abuse of process after it was initiated, but on the alleged ill intentions in initiating the process in the first place. The court noted that the plaintiff had not and could not state a claim for wrongful use of civil proceedings because the plaintiff settled the underlying action and, therefore, could not allege a favorable termination. 

Scott Eberle and Gregory Graham (both of Pittsburgh, PA) obtained a damage-limiting ruling on a motion to dismiss in the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The case involved defamation per se allegations against our client, a local public broadcasting organization, that were claimed to have resulted in over $30 million in business losses. Via motion to dismiss, Scott and Greg were able to successfully argue that the claim had to be limited in time to a narrow window, thus limiting the plaintiffs’ ability to recover the extensive damages they sought.

Gregory Graham (Pittsburgh, PA) achieved a summary judgment dismissal in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County. The case involved claims of legal malpractice arising from divorce proceedings. 

Nicholas Chrysanthem (New York, NY) obtained summary judgment in a legal malpractice case that arose from an underlying real estate deal that fell apart. The plaintiff claimed that our client failed to properly cancel a real estate contract and alleged the loss of a $175,000 security deposit and unspecified loss of opportunity income. The court initially dismissed the duplicative breach of fiduciary cause of action and the negligent infliction of emotional distress cause of action on our pre-answer motion to dismiss. After the conclusion of discovery on the malpractice cause of action, the court granted summary judgment to our client. 

Nick also obtained pre-answer dismissal of a legal malpractice case against our client who was sued for legal malpractice because his associate neglected to oppose a threshold motion in the underlying auto case. The underlying court granted that threshold motion, in part, and denied it, in part. The plaintiff retained a new attorney without firing our client. The new attorney commenced a malpractice action against our client and refused to substitute as attorney of record in the underlying action. We moved to dismiss the case on a number of issues pre-answer, but primarily because the legal malpractice action was premature and the plaintiff could not prove that “but for” the failure to oppose the underlying threshold motion he would have been able to prove that he had a “serious injury” or actual damages. The court granted our motion to dismiss the legal malpractice complaint. 

Dante Rohr (Orlando, FL) recently secured dismissal of the latest in a series of filings brought by a former client against his attorneys alleging malpractice in the handling of his workers’ compensation and potential American with Disabilities Act claims. The first complaint, filed in state court, was stayed pending final disposition of the plaintiff’s claims in arbitration pursuant to the arbitration provision in the parties’ Retainer Agreement. However, rather than bringing the action in arbitration as directed, the plaintiff refiled his complaint in federal court, adding a plethora of federal causes of action. We argued that none of the pled federal causes of action stated a cause of action under Rule 12(b)(6). The court agreed, dismissing all federal causes of action with prejudice. Because the remaining claims arose solely from state law, the court declined to exercise its subject matter jurisdiction over those claims. Back in state court, more than two years had passed since the entry of the order compelling the plaintiff to bring his claims in arbitration. Because the plaintiff failed to do so, the court dismissed the previously stayed action with prejudice.

*Prior Results Do Not Guarantee a Similar Outcome

_{Legal Updates for Lawyers’ Professional Liability – January 2026 is prepared by Marshall Dennehey to provide information on recent legal developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. We would be pleased to provide such legal assistance as you require on these and other subjects when called upon. ATTORNEY ADVERTISING pursuant to New York RPC 7.1 Copyright © 2026 Marshall Dennehey, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm. For reprints or inquiries, or if you wish to be removed from this mailing list, contact MEDeSatnick@mdwcg.com.}