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Lawyers Must Continue to Dot Their I’s and Cross Their T’s To Avoid Legal Malpractice Claims

March 22, 2018

In a legal malpractice claim brought by Plaintiff, an Australian investment bank against Morrison & Foester, claiming that the law firm did not conduct due diligence in uncovering material misrepresentations pertaining to Plaintiff’s underwriting of a public stock offering of Puda Coal, Inc., Justice Scarpulla, in the New York County Supreme Court (Index No.: 650988/15) dismissed the suit. Notably, the Supreme Court held that the Plaintiff in Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc. v. Morrison & Foerster LLP was in possession of the information at issue as it had an investigative report, prepared by a private international investigation firm that gave Plaintiff notice of the material misrepresentations. The report produced by the private firm disclosed information regarding the public offering, which contradicted public representations and reports. Upon receipt of the report, Plaintiff forwarded the report to Defendant, neither of which picked up on the misrepresentations in the report that Puda did not own a 90% interest in Shanxi Coal. Instead, the law firm issued an opinion confirming its due diligence and advising Plaintiff that nothing came to its attention that would lead to the conclusion that the offering documents contain false or misleading information. However, the Supreme Court, nevertheless, held that Plaintiff could not claim that the law firm’s representations caused damage to Plaintiff.

However, the Appellate Division, First Department unanimously reversed Justice Scarpulla’s decision and determined that Plaintiff sufficiently demonstrated the “but for” causation element necessary for its legal malpractice claim in defeating Defendant’s pre-answer motion to dismiss. Specifically, the Court held that Plaintiff demonstrated that but for the law firm’s negligence, Plaintiff would have abstained from its involvement in the public offering, thus preventing Plaintiff from acquiring fees, expenses, and other damages.

Further, the Court concluded that the law firm’s argument that Plaintiff possessed the information in an investigative report is unavailing because the information contained in the report cannot be described as explicitly putting Plaintiff on notice and not requiring counsel’s interpretation of the information. Contrarily, in Ableco Fin. LLC v. Hilson, 109 A.D.3d 438 (1st Dep’t 2013), lv denied 22 N.Y.3d 864 (2014) this Court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the legal malpractice claim on the basis that plaintiff indisputably possessed certain information prior to the closing and was aware that it would not receive first priority lien on the inventory and, as such, counsel’s legal interpretation was not required.

 Takeaway: In Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc, the law firm was specifically hired to conduct due diligence and investigate the company’s offering. Ultimately, the Court held that the law firm should not be able to shift legal responsibility it was hired to perform to the client. A law firm cannot release itself from liability by arguing that because its client possessed certain information, that the law firm need not conduct the due diligence it was retained to do in the first instance.