Legal Malpractice

Death in Iraq, Blackwater and Legal Malpractice

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

Law.Com reports [as does the BLT Blog] that a legal malpractice case by Blackwater Security Consulting has been dismissed, now for the second time against Wiley Rein.    The legal malpractice case arises from the horrible death of Blackwater employees in Falugia, Iraq.

The fact of deaths in Iraq ending in US litigation brings to mind a recent speech which attributed the idea to Alexis de Tocqueville that all serious issues in the US ultimately end in courts.  If it ends in court, look for legal malpractice litigation to follow.

"On Dec. 29, Judge Jennifer Anderson of D.C. Superior Court dismissed the $30 million malpractice suit brought against the firm by Blackwater Security Consulting on summary judgment. She's the second judge to throw out the case since it was filed last January.

"They have the right to ask more judges to look at it," says Zuckerman Spaeder partner Mark Foster, who represents Wiley Rein in the matter. But if Blackwater's lawyer, Barry Nace of Paulson & Nace, chooses to do so, Foster says, "I think he'd be wasting his time." (Nace is on overseas travel and could not immediately be reached for comment.)

Blackwater alleged that Wiley botched its defense of the security contractor in a wrongful death case brought on behalf of four Blackwater guards killed in Iraq in 2004. Blackwater claimed the suit would have been dismissed if it had been heard in federal court, instead of in a North Carolina trial court. Blackwater said the Wiley lawyers failed to get a venue change because they didn't invoke the federal officer removal statute, which grants federal jurisdiction to claims involving federal officers."

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on January 07, 2009 (boomark / email).