The Fourth Department, in what we see as strong terms, reiterated that it is always the attorney’s job to prepare the case, and that responsibility may not be shifted to the client. Even when the client participates in the preparation it remains a responsibility of the attorney.

In Rupert v Gates & Adams, P.C. ;2011 NY Slip Op 02554 ; Decided on April 1, 2011 ; Appellate Division, Fourth Department the AD not only says that it was the obligation of the attorneys to trace and investigate matrimonial assets, but that they themselves had to do the work.
 

"We further conclude, however, that the foregoing waiver analysis does not apply with respect to plaintiff’s aforementioned claims that defendants were negligent with respect to the investigation and valuation of plaintiff’s separate property, their investigation of the payment of the sum of $315,000 relative to a note held by plaintiff, and their investigation of the deposit by plaintiff of approximately $60,000 in pension monies into a joint account. Defendants failed to meet their initial burden on those parts of the motion concerning those claims (see Pignataro, 38 AD3d 1320; see generally Zuckerman, 49 NY2d at 562). The waiver analysis based on plaintiff’s global settlement does not apply to those purported deficiencies in defendants’ representation of plaintiff in the matrimonial action because the appeal from the final judgment in the matrimonial action would not have permitted defendants or substitute counsel for plaintiff to address questions regarding the failure to trace plaintiff’s separate property into the marriage and to locate evidence both proving plaintiff’s payment of $315,000 on an outstanding note and demonstrating that $60,000 of plaintiff’s pension monies had been transferred to a joint account to be shared with plaintiff’s former wife. Finally, defendants will not be heard to contend that plaintiff’s involvement with the preparation of the matrimonial action for trial bars him from raising those deficiencies. An attorney generally is not permitted to shift to the client the legal responsibility that the attorney was hired to undertake because of his or her superior knowledge (see Northrop v Thorsen, 46 AD3d 780, 783). Indeed, it is well settled that "[a]n attorney has the responsibility to investigate and prepare every phase of his [or her] client’s case" (Rosenstrauss v Jacobs & Jacobs, 56 AD3d 453, 453 [internal quotation marks omitted]). "