professional liability

Several of the premier law firms in Philadelphia have turned to BLF when they have been the target of legal malpractice claims. BLF has also represented both plaintiffs and defendants in professional liability disputes in other fields, including accounting, architecture, engineering, health care consulting, underwriting, and financial services.

Our representative engagements in this area have included:

• Obtaining a victory for BLF’s clients, a large law firm and one of its senior lawyers, in a legal malpractice suit by the law firm’s former client. BLF, on behalf of the clients, asserted a counterclaim for unpaid fees. After extensive discovery established that the malpractice claims were without merit, they were voluntarily withdrawn with prejudice, and the client’s counterclaim for unpaid fees was satisfied in full.
• Successfully defending a major law firm against legal malpractice claims by former clients. Following several weeks of trial, the court entered a compulsory non-suit in favor of BLF’s client. This ruling was affirmed on appeal.
• Successfully representing a surety company in a two-week jury trial involving professional malpractice claims against the company’s underwriter and a consultant. The trial resulted in a verdict in favor of BLF’s client, which was one of the largest verdicts in the history of that court.
• Winning a multi-million dollar arbitration award on behalf of a long-term care facility in a professional liability action against the facility’s financial consultants.
• Negotiating a favorable settlement for BLF’s client, a major university, in a professional liability dispute with an engineering firm. The university asserted claims against the engineering firm for professional malpractice in the design of an HVAC system. The dispute was settled after a private mediation and without litigation.
• Representing a major national accounting firm in an accounting malpractice case growing out of the bankruptcy of a major U.S. corporation, Bazelon Less & Feldman joined three national law firms, and had primary responsibility for conducting discovery concerning investment banks and underwriters, including indexing and reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents and taking numerous depositions of these financial institutions.
• Representing a number of accountants at a national accounting firm in an investigation conducted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”), including representation at interviews at the PCAOB.
• Representing medical professionals when complaints triggered the malpractice carrier to provide a defense.

Representative cases:

Accounting Malpractice Defense. Richard L. Bazelon represented one of the largest accounting firms in USA in a multi-million accounting malpractice action. BLF's client was charged with failing to uncover massive fraud. ... Read More

Legal Malpractice Defense.Richard L. Bazelon represented a large law firm and one of its senior lawyers in a legal malpractice action brought by the law firm's former client following an unsuccessful trial. ... Read More

Representation of Plaintiff in Engineering Malpractice Action.After spending millions of dollars to install a state-of-the art, energy efficient climate control system in a new office building which housed its personnel, BLF's client, a major university, discovered ... Read More