Legal Malpractice

Wiley Rein and Blackwater Legal Malpractice Case Ends

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

Law.Com reports that the Wiley Rein legal malpractice case has been dismissed. This was a case with major players: "The Wiley team that defended Blackwater in the underlying case consisted of Fred Fielding, now White House counsel; Barbara Van Gelder, now a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Scott McCaleb, still a partner at Wiley; and Margaret Ryan, now a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Blackwater's malpractice suit named Ryan as a separate defendant because, according to the complaint, she led the defense team."

Blackwater is a major player in the Iraq war, and this case involved a wrongful death in Fallujah.  Images of Blackwater contract employees being dragged behind trucks through the streets was a strong and sickening sight..

"Blackwater sued the Washington law firm in January, alleging that Wiley lawyers neglected critical case law and statutes while defending it in a 2005 wrongful death case brought on behalf of four Blackwater guards brutally killed in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. "

"In the malpractice complaint, Blackwater argued the wrongful death suit would have been dismissed if it were heard in federal court, where the defense could have relied on similar cases where claims against battlefield contractors were thrown out. But the 2005 case was kept in Wake County Superior Court in North Carolina, despite a motion filed by the Wiley team to get it moved to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The malpractice complaint alleged the motion failed predominantly because the Wiley lawyers didn't invoke the federal officer removal statute, which gives federal jurisdiction to claims involving federal officers.

Wiley's motion to dismiss the malpractice suit argued that Blackwater could not have been considered a "federal officer" in the underlying case because the guards who were murdered did not contract directly with the U.S. government, were not providing security for U.S. military personnel, and were not overseen by the U.S. military.

In her five-page order, Retchin said Blackwater's claim that it was entitled to remove the wrongful death case to federal court under the federal officer removal statute where "dismissal was the only appropriate remedy" were "legal conclusion[s] couched as factual allegation[s]."

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on May 29, 2008 (boomark / email).