Again, Not Legal Malpractice and Not Defamation
This is the same heading, but relates to a totally different set of circumstances. Is an attorney/law firm united in interest with its former client, when the former client is sued, but the attorney is not? May plaintiff [or a third-party plaintiff] rely upon the relation-back principal in order to bring in the attorneys late in the case? We see a well reasoned opinion of Justice Warshawsky in the matter of Arbor Secured Funding v. Just Assets NY 1, in which the answer, as far as Davidoff, Maliito & Hutcher LLP is concerned. We cannot import the actual text, but the court found that a statute of limitations in defamation might related back to a claim "previously asserted against a codefendant for statute of limitations purposes where the two defendants are `united in interest.' The proponent must show that both claims arose from "the same conduct, transaction or occurrence, that the new defendant is united in interest with the original defendant..."