Legal Malpractice

Legal Malpractice Claims Reinstated Against Boies Schiller

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

Yesterday, the Appellate Division, First Department, reversed Supreme Court and reinstated the negligence causes of action on behalf of Mary Anne Fletcher against Boies Schiller in Fletcher v Boies, Schiller & Flexner, LLP; 2010 NY Slip Op 06140 ;Decided on July 20, 2010 .
 

From the Decision:  "Plaintiff, a fashion model, pleaded that a prominent agency mismanaged her and lost or withheld her crucial portfolio; that she had evidence of a scheme involving bogus expenses charged by that agency against other models; that images of her were profitably used by a large retail chain, wrongfully and without her authorization, via a subsidiary; and that a second agency had interfered with bookings that would have earned her $275,000, and instead booked another model for those jobs.

Plaintiff further pleaded that, when she consulted the Boies Schiller law firm and met with defendant Hayes, she was persuaded to turn over a large body of self-gathered evidence and told that her claims were worth large, specified amounts, and that the firm, and defendant Hayes concealed a conflict of interest between her and existing classes in state and federal actions; excluded her from the federal class action; subordinated her interests to those of other class members; participated lackadaisically in settlement discussions; and failed to timely file a claim in a crucial bankruptcy proceeding while successfully prosecuting the claim of the federal class.

The complaint should not have been dismissed insofar as it pleaded two causes of action for malpractice. Plaintiff has pleaded that, but for defendants' malpractice in failing to advise her properly, she "would have avoided some actual
ascertainable damage" (see IMO Indus. v Anderson Kill & Olick, 267 AD2d 10, 11 [1999]), [*2]including sufficient detail as to the "nature of" the underlying claim (see Reid v Druckman, 309 AD2d 669 [2003]). She need not, at this early stage, offer a detailed pleading to support her quantifying her alleged loss (see Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn v Munao, 270 AD2d 150, 151 [2000]). "

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on July 21, 2010 (boomark / email).