Because legal malpractice is always a "case within a case" it is a two step process.  The very nature of the two step process gives rise to defendant’s ability to brag over winning either of the two legs.  An example is Orick’s statement that they were vindicated, even after it was proven that the attorney violated his fiduciary duty.  It can be inferred that the jury determined that the attorney breached his fiduciary duty, but that the plaintiff would have lost control of her business anyway. Here, from the LA Legal Pad :

"The verdict on Tuesday came following a six-week trial and two days of deliberation in Benesch v. Tandler, No. 317187 (San Francisco Co., Calif., Super. Ct.). Plaintiff Fritzi Benesch, the founder of clothing company Fritzi California, claimed Hoisington didn’t make it clear she was giving up control of her company to her daughter and son-in-law.

Jurors did find that Hoisington failed his obligation to his client by breaching a fiduciary obligation, but that it was not a substantial factor in harm to the client. Hoisington spent more than 30 years as a trusts and estates attorney in the San Francisco office of Orrick prior to his retirement.

 

Note the difference in this report.  Here is a squib from theAmLaw Daily.:

"When a firm’s professional reputation is at stake, going to trial is a nerve-racking proposition. But Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe’s insistence that it provided proper counsel to a multimillionaire businesswoman was vindicated on Tuesday: A San Francisco superior court jury found Orrick and retired trusts and estates partner William Hoisington not liable for legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty, according to a statement from the firm’s lawyers at Keker & Van Nest.
The case was brought in 2000 by Fritzi Benesch, the founder of a clothing company called Fritzi California. In the 1980s, through a series of estate planning transactions, Benesch passed control of her clothing business to her son-in-law and daughter, with whom she said she had "a perfect relationship." But when Benesch later discovered that her husband had been unfaithful, the family fell apart. In a malpractice suit filed in 2000, Benesch claimed that she had been duped by Orrick and Hoisington into signing away her company."
 

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Andrew Lavoott Bluestone

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened…

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened his private law office and took his first legal malpractice case.

Since 1989, Bluestone has become a leader in the New York Plaintiff’s Legal Malpractice bar, handling a wide array of plaintiff’s legal malpractice cases arising from catastrophic personal injury, contracts, patents, commercial litigation, securities, matrimonial and custody issues, medical malpractice, insurance, product liability, real estate, landlord-tenant, foreclosures and has defended attorneys in a limited number of legal malpractice cases.

Bluestone also took an academic role in field, publishing the New York Attorney Malpractice Report from 2002-2004.  He started the “New York Attorney Malpractice Blog” in 2004, where he has published more than 4500 entries.

Mr. Bluestone has written 38 scholarly peer-reviewed articles concerning legal malpractice, many in the Outside Counsel column of the New York Law Journal. He has appeared as an Expert witness in multiple legal malpractice litigations.

Mr. Bluestone is an adjunct professor of law at St. John’s University College of Law, teaching Legal Malpractice.  Mr. Bluestone has argued legal malpractice cases in the Second Circuit, in the New York State Court of Appeals, each of the four New York Appellate Divisions, in all four of  the U.S. District Courts of New York and in Supreme Courts all over the state.  He has also been admitted pro haec vice in the states of Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida and was formally admitted to the US District Court of Connecticut and to its Bankruptcy Court all for legal malpractice matters. He has been retained by U.S. Trustees in legal malpractice cases from Bankruptcy Courts, and has represented municipalities, insurance companies, hedge funds, communications companies and international manufacturing firms. Mr. Bluestone regularly lectures in CLEs on legal malpractice.

Based upon his professional experience Bluestone was named a Diplomate and was Board Certified by the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys in 2008 in Legal Malpractice. He remains Board Certified.  He was admitted to The Best Lawyers in America from 2012-2019.  He has been featured in Who’s Who in Law since 1993.

In the last years, Mr. Bluestone has been featured for two particularly noteworthy legal malpractice cases.  The first was a settlement of an $11.9 million dollar default legal malpractice case of Yeo v. Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman which was reported in the NYLJ on August 15, 2016. Most recently, Mr. Bluestone obtained a rare plaintiff’s verdict in a legal malpractice case on behalf of the City of White Plains v. Joseph Maria, reported in the NYLJ on February 14, 2017. It was the sole legal malpractice jury verdict in the State of New York for 2017.

Bluestone has been at the forefront of the development of legal malpractice principles and has contributed case law decisions, writing and lecturing which have been recognized by his peers.  He is regularly mentioned in academic writing, and his past cases are often cited in current legal malpractice decisions. He is recognized for his ample writings on Judiciary Law § 487, a 850 year old statute deriving from England which relates to attorney deceit.