Law Practice,
Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Apr. 28, 2017
Breach of fiduciary duty vs professional negligence
Armed with a recent appellate decision, trial courts should readily sustain demurrers where such causes of action are nothing more than garden-variety negligence claims.
Kenneth C. Feldman
Partner
Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith LLP
Certified Specialist in Legal Malpractice
633 W 5th St Ste 4000
Los Angeles , CA 90071
Phone: (213) 250-1800
Fax: (213) 250-7900
Email: Ken.Feldman@lewisbrisbois.com
Loyola Law School
Kenneth is firm-wide chair of the legal malpractice defense group at Lewis Brisbois. He is a certified specialist, legal malpractice law, State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization, and is vice chair of the State Bar Legal Malpractice Law Advisory Commission. Mr. Feldman is the author of "California Legal Malpractice & Malicious Prosecution Liability Handbook."
David D. Samani
Senior Associate
Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith LLP
professional liability
633 W 5th St Ste 4000
Los Angeles , CA 90071
Phone: (213) 250-1800
Fax: (213) 250-7900
Email: david.samani@lewisbrisbois.com
Cornell University Law School
David is in Lewis Brisbois' professional liability group, regularly defends lawyers. He is a co-author of the California Legal Malpractice & Malicious Prosecution Liability Handbook, which is now in its 7th Edition.
For too long, some trial courts have been hesitant to eliminate breach of fiduciary duty causes of action in garden-variety legal malpractice cases, despite a CACI instruction suggesting such claims should be limited to a breach of the duty of loyalty or confidentiality. Now, however, armed with last week's decision of Broadway Victoria LLC v. Norminton, Wiita & Fuster, 2017 DJDAR 3803 (April 19, 2017), trial courts should readily sustain demurrers, or at the minimum grant motions...
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