Entertainment attorneys have unique relationships with clients who are singers, bands, instrumentalists or other kinds of musicians. In addition to contract work or litigation, musicians’ lawyers also may have other roles like those of negotiator, agent or promoter....
Conflict of Interest
High frequency of legal malpractice claims from conflicts of interest
Attorney negligence for serving clients with whom they may have conflicts of interest is the most common type of legal malpractice claim in the U.S., reports a prominent insurance broker in its 10th annual survey of 10 lawyer malpractice insurers. Professional duties...
Florida legal malpractice case ends in mistrial
Jurors in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom were unable to come to unanimous agreement on a legal malpractice count in a July 2022 trial involving conflict of interest in estate planning. In light of our recent discussions about the potential for malpractice in the context...
Legal malpractice potential in the attorney-musician relationship
Sound legal advice, skilled negotiation, vigorous advocacy, uncompromised loyalty and airtight contracts are all key to meeting the complex legal needs of a professional singer or musician. When an entertainment lawyer fails to fulfil their duty of care to a...
National trends in attorney malpractice claims
Corporate and securities law. Business transactions. Trusts and estates. These areas of legal practice have been the top-three subjects of malpractice claims filed with professional negligence insurers for the past three years. Insurance defense. Taxation....
City attorney had conflict in helping private party sue city council member
A lawyer’s conflict of interest with their client is a common basis for legal malpractice. A key professional component of the attorney-client relationship is the lawyer’s duty of loyalty to the client, including protecting and advocating robustly for client...
Conflicts of interest: A client is not a needle in a law firm’s haystack, part 2
In part 1 of this post, we introduced readers to RevoLaze LLC v. Dentons US LLP, a recent Ohio case in which a jury awarded a client more than $32 million in compensatory damages for losses related to their law firm’s failure to disclose a major conflict of interest....
Splitting hairs: Attorney conflicts of interest among clients, part 1
A lawyer has an unflinching duty of loyalty to their clients. That duty only has teeth when the attorney’s allegiance is not torn between two or more clients with adverse interests. In that situation, legal counsel cannot advocate freely and without reserve for one of...
The malpractice risk to clients when a lawyer represents all parties to a deal
When parties anticipate a friendly commercial deal or business transaction, they may consider retaining the same attorney or law firm to handle all the associated legal work rather than each of them hiring their own counsel. Joint representation sounds efficient and...
Florida legal malpractice: Duty of care and fiduciary duty are distinct
Under the umbrella of legal malpractice are two kinds of claims against a lawyer: breach of the duty of care and breach of fiduciary duty. Each duty involves a different professional aspect of the attorney-client relationship. Broadly, the duty of care concerns...