Legal Malpractice
According to the Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers, there are three theories pursuant to which attorneys may be professionally liable to their clients:
- liability for professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duty (i.e. failure to comply with the relevant standards of professional conduct);
- other civil liability (in most cases, breach of contract, i.e. lawyers or law firms fail to provide the services they have agreed to provide to their clients), or
- vicarious liability (liability for the malpractice of another lawyer within the firm). Of course, in many cases actions that are characterized as “vicarious” can also be viewed as “direct” (e.g. failure to supervise).
As law firms get larger, management gets more difficult due to the lack of information about what activities the law firm is engaged in. The issue of conflicts of interests is particularly problematic. In addition, when law firms open multiple offices, exercising control and quality control become more troublesome. Particularly problematic are multi-national/cultural firms that have significant logistical and other challenges.
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