Attorney fee claims = Client malpractice claims.  This particular phrase could be chiseled into law school lintels.  Kovkov v Law Firm of Dayrel Sewell, PLLC 2020 NY Slip Op 05682 [187 AD3d 505] October 13, 2020
Appellate Division, First Department is a prime example.  Law firm was not paid after getting an initial $7500.  The representation was to claim that a case against plaintiff was frivolous.  It was never commenced.

“The claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress was correctly dismissed because defendants’ conduct as alleged in the complaint was not “so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community” (Howell v New York Post Co., 81 NY2d 115, 122 [1993] [internal quotation marks omitted]).

The breach of fiduciary duty claim was correctly dismissed as redundant of the legal malpractice claim (see Boye v Rubin & Bailin, LLP, 152 AD3d 1, 10 [1st Dept 2017]).

Supreme Court correctly dismissed the legal malpractice claim, which was based on defendants’ failure to commence an action on plaintiff’s behalf. The basis for that action would have been that the underlying action against plaintiff was frivolous. The record, however, demonstrates that the underlying action was discontinued without prejudice and the court indicated that it would have denied the motion to dismiss it.

We have considered plaintiff’s remaining contentions and find them unavailing.”