The AD2 is overburdened, and has an ultra busy caseload.  As a result, its decisions are sometimes gnomic, dense and somewhat short on the detail of the underlying case. Silverman v Potruch & Daab, LLC  2016 NY Slip Op 05857  Decided on August 24, 2016  Appellate Division, Second Department is an example.  The law firm was defending Plaintiffs in a case, and things went wrong.  Why remains a mystery.

webcivilsupreme has the decision itself, which is a battle by plaintiff and another over the division of a house for sale.  The AD decision is valuable for its discussion of the standard of summary judgment as well as the elements of legal malpractice.
“To recover damages for legal malpractice, a plaintiff must establish that the defendant attorney failed to exercise the ordinary reasonable skill and knowledge commonly possessed by a member of the legal profession, and that the breach of this duty proximately caused the plaintiff to sustain actual and ascertainable damages (see Nomura Asset Capital Corp. v Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, 26 NY3d 40, 50; Rudolf v Shayne, Dachs, Stanisci, Corker & Sauer, 8 NY3d 438, 442;McCoy v Feinman, 99 NY2d 295, 301). “To establish causation, a plaintiff must show that he or she would have prevailed in the underlying action or would not have incurred any damages, but for the lawyer’s negligence” (Rudolf v Shayne, Dachs, Stanisci, Corker & Sauer, 8 NY3d at 442; see Nomura Asset Capital Corp. v Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, 26 NY3d at 50; Davis v Klein, 88 NY2d 1008, 1009-1010). Thus, in order to prevail on a summary judgment motion, “the defendant in a legal malpractice action must present evidence in admissible form establishing that the plaintiff is unable to prove at least one of these essential elements” (Alizio v Feldman, 82 AD3d 804, 804; see Nomura Asset Capital Corp. v Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, 26 NY3d at 49;Smith v Kaplan Belsky Ross Bartell, LLP, 126 AD3d 877, 878; Affordable [*2]Community, Inc. v Simon, 95 AD3d 1047, 1048).”