The typical triumvirate of claims in a legal malpractice setting is Legal Malpractice, Breach of Contract and Breach of Fiduciary Duty.  Defendants almost always move to dismiss the second and third claims on the basis that they duplicate the legal malpractice claim and must be dismissed as "duplicitive."

in Chowaiki & Co. Fine Art Ltd. v Lacher  2014 NY Slip Op 01992 [115 AD3d 600]  March 25, 2014
Appellate Division, First Department  we see the First Department noting that plaintiffs need not "elect their remedies."   As might be surmised, the two principals, duplication and election of remedies stand in stark contract to each other.

"In this action arising from defendant attorney and his law firm’s representation of plaintiffs in an action brought against them by a former employee, plaintiffs allege that they were excessively billed for services rendered, and that they were harassed, threatened and coerced into paying the excessive and overinflated fees. The motion court properly dismissed plaintiffs’ claim for breach of fiduciary duty as duplicative of the breach of contract claim, since the claims are premised upon the same facts and seek identical damages, return of the excessive fees paid (see CMMF, LLC v J.P. Morgan Inv. Mgt. Inc., 78 AD3d 562 [1st Dept 2010]; cf. Ulico Cas. Co. v Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker, 56 AD3d 1 [1st Dept 2008]). Although plaintiffs sufficiently allege an independent duty owed to them, arising from the attorney-client relationship, the fraud claim is similarly redundant of the breach of contract claim, since it also seeks the same damages (see Coppola v Applied Elec. Corp., 288 AD2d 41, 42 [1st Dept 2001]; Makastchian v Oxford Health Plans, 270 AD2d 25, 27 [1st Dept 2000]).

However, we find that, as a dispute exists as to the application of the retainer agreement as to defendant, plaintiffs need not elect their remedies and may pursue a quasi-contractual claim for unjust enrichment, as an alternative claim (see Wilmoth v Sandor, 259 AD2d 252, 254 [1st Dept 1999]).

Plaintiffs’ claims of excessive billing and related conduct, which actions are not alleged to have adversely affected their claims or defenses in the underlying action, do not state a claim for legal malpractice (see e.g. AmBase Corp. v Davis Polk & Wardwell, 8 NY3d 428, 434 [2007])."