Fortress Credit Corp. suedDechert LLP, and lost  after Marc Dreier "proposed to plaintiffs that they participate in a short-term note program to finance the purchase of foreign real estate assets. The designated borrower would be Dreier’s clients, Solow Realty & Development Company, LLC, and affiliated companies controlled by real estate developer Sheldon Solow (collectively Solow Realty), and Dreier would be the guarantor. The parties executed two loans totaling $60 million in 2006, and, in 2008, Dreier proposed another $50 million loan transaction. For this last loan transaction, plaintiffs required Solow Realty and Dreier to retain independent counsel to issue a legal opinion as to whether Solow Realty and Dreier had carried out the necessary formalities to render the loan documents valid and binding on them. Ostensibly, Solow Realty and Dreier retained defendant for this purpose. Dreier furnished the necessary documents and information to defendant for the preparation of the opinion. All the documents to which Solow Realty was a signatory appeared to have been signed by Solow Realty, and some bore "what appeared to be" the signatures of Sheldon Solow and Solow Realty’s CEO.

Plaintiffs contend that they relied on defendant’s legal opinion that the loan documents were duly executed and delivered and that the loan was a valid and binding obligation on Solow Realty and Dreier. Plaintiffs wired $50 million to an attorney trust account set up at Dreier’s firm. Several months later, Dreier was arrested in connection with another fraud scheme, and plaintiffs discovered that Solow Realty had no knowledge of and was never a party to the loan transactions and that Dreier had falsified the documents and forged the Solow Realty signatures.

The allegation that defendant acted recklessly in failing to confirm that Solow Realty was in fact involved in the loan transaction is not a sufficient allegation of scienter, an element of the cause of action for fraud, especially since the factual allegations of this complaint do not establish that defendant made a knowingly false statement or that defendant was a knowing participant in the fraud (see LaSalle Natl. Bank v Ernst & Young, 285 AD2d 101, 110 [2001]). [*2]"

Now, in a second try, they sue Ruskin Moscou Faltischek P.C. 2012 NY Slip Op 03954
Decided on May 22, 2012  Appellate Division, First Department .  Although plaintiff’s attorney made many significant arguments, the AD found that it too should be dismissed.  "For the reasons stated in Fortress Credit Corp. v Dechert LLP (89 AD3d 615 [2011]) — a case involving virtually identical facts and allegations — the complaint in this action fails to state claims for fraud, legal malpractice, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of fiduciary duty. Plaintiffs have not distinguished this case from Dechert and there has been no change in the law to warrant reexamination of the issues (see NAMA Holdings, LLC v Greenberg Traurig, LLP, 92 AD3d 614 [2012]; compare George Campbell Painting v National Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, PA, 92 AD3d 104, 105-106 [2012]). "