Plaintiffs signed a consent agreement with the IRS agreeing to more than  $ 1.5 Million as well as civil fraud and negligence penalties.  That’s a lot of money.  The attorneys who represented them continued on for a period of time and then wrapped up the IRS matter.  Plaintiffs sued, and faced both a statute of limitations defense as well as a strategic choice defense.  They ultimately lost on the strategic choice issue.  Tantleff v Kestenbaum & Mark  2015 NY Slip Op 06720 [131 AD3d 955]
September 2, 2015  Appellate Division, Second Department  discusses the concept that the clients were fully informed and agreed to a difficult strategic choice.

“In any event, even if this action were timely commenced, the defendants established their prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by demonstrating that their recommendation that the plaintiffs execute the consent agreement was a reasonable strategic decision (see Leon Petroleum, LLC v Carl S. Levine & Assoc., P.C., 122 AD3d 686 [2014]; Keeley v Tracy, 301 AD2d 502 [2003]; Hart v Carro, Spanbock, Kaster & Cuiffo, 211 AD2d 617 [1995]). Furthermore, the defendants demonstrated that the recommendation was made after extensive discussions with the plaintiffs, who agreed to the course of action (see Noone v Stieglitz, 59 AD3d 505 [2009]; Holschauer v Fisher, 5 AD3d 553 [2004]; cf. Estate of Nevelson v Carro, Spanbock, Kaster & Cuiffo, 259 AD2d 282 [1999]). In opposition, the plaintiffs offered no evidence to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether the recommendation “was an unreasonable course of action that constituted legal malpractice” (Keeley v Tracy, 301 AD2d at 503; see Leon Petroleum, LLC v Carl S. Levine & Assoc., P.C., 122 AD3d at 687). The plaintiffs’ claims amounted to nothing more than their present dissatisfaction with the defendants’ strategic choice and thus, did not support a malpractice claim as a matter of law (see Pere v St. Onge, 15 AD3d 465, 466 [2005]; Zarin v Reid & Priest, 184 AD2d 385, 385 [1992]).”