Andrew Zwirling writes in today’s NYLJ on the requirement of an attorney-client relationship in Legal Malpractice. He writes in Malpractice: Establishing Existence of Attorney-Client Relationship:
“In a legal malpractice action, a plaintiff must prove that the defendant-attorney failed to exercise the ordinary reasonable skill, care, diligence and knowledge commonly possessed by a member of the legal profession and that the attorney’s breach of this professional duty proximately caused plaintiff damages.”

It looks like this article came from a case in which plaintiff tried to sue his employer’s attorney, or a union attorney who represented him. Many times clients seek to sue attorneys provided to them by their union or employer, only to come up against the question of privity. For the most part, they lack the attorney-client relationship necessary for successful legal malpractice liability.