Professional Liability
Our professional liability practice focuses on cases concerning attorney conduct. CPW also represents clients in professional liability claims involving accountants, brokers, and judges.
In our attorney conduct practice, we represent clients in legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, malicious prosecution, law firm disqualification, attorney-client fee disputes and sanctions matters, as well as State Bar of California proceedings. We handle matters at the trial court level, including jury trials, and before appellate courts. CPW attorneys serve as outside ethics counsel to law firms, and we regularly provide advice concerning conflicts of interest, advertising, client trust account and funds handling. We also advise lawyers and law firms concerning law firm dissolutions, disputes among members of law firms and partner departures. A number of CPW attorneys serve as ethics and malpractice experts for both plaintiffs and defendants and several of us have defended judges in civil suits alleging judicial improprieties and in disciplinary proceedings before the California Commission on Judicial Performance.
In our insurance-related practice, we regularly represent insurance brokers and agents in claims and potential claims arising out of insurance services at the retail, wholesale and reinsurance levels. For example, we represented brokers and agents in claims involving the Oakland firestorm and the Northridge earthquake.
Representative Cases
- Defended attorney against threatened sanctions arising from alleged discovery violations.
- Defended Silicon Valley law firm against claims of conflict of interest, malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty arising from failed start-up venture; settled prior to trial.
- Represented international corporation in action against major law firm alleging conflict of interest, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty; case settled on eve of trial.
- Arbitrated significant fee dispute between Silicon Valley law firm and its former client; obtained favorable ruling including attorney fees.
- Defended a law firm from negligence and breach of fiduciary duty claims arising out of the firm's alleged failure to properly oversee and evaluate an underlying estate surcharge proceeding for a client insurer.
- Represented an insurance agent in a claim by a homeowners' association for misrepresentation of coverage in the course of the sale and renewal of an insurance policy.
- Represented a probate attorney in disciplinary proceedings before the State Bar that involved allegations of professional negligence and mishandling of client funds.
- Represented a business executive against an accounting firm that filed an improperly inflated W-2 income tax form in retaliation for a management dispute.
- Represented an insurance broker that had placed health insurance coverage for self-insured employer health plans with a fictitious insurer created by the perpetrators of a massive fraud. A court-appointed trustee sued the broker and other defendants on behalf of hundreds of employer health plans. After the litigation had been pending for some time and an unsuccessful mediation, the broker brought one of our lawyers into the litigation as lead counsel. He investigated and then negotiated a favorable settlement with the trustee, which the court approved over the objections of co-defendants.
- Represented an insurance brokerage firm that was sued for failing to obtain earthquake coverage for a fine art collection. The trial court approved the client's good faith settlement over the opposition of the co-defendant insurer, and the appellate court denied the insurer's petition for a writ. The art collectors went to trial against the insurer and obtained a multi-million dollar judgment.
- Represented a medical benefits administrator that had failed to include underwriting information concerning an infant's heart condition in a self-insured employer health plan's application for the stop-loss insurance. When the health plan submitted a large claim to its stop-loss insurer, the insurer declined coverage based on the nondisclosure, leaving numerous healthcare providers' bills unpaid. The health plan, the providers and the infant's family asserted E&O claims against the benefits administrator. One of our lawyers negotiated a favorable global settlement with contributions by the stop-loss insurer, the employer/self-insured plan, its insurance broker and the client.
- Represented an insurance brokerage firm that was sued by a developer for alleged failure to obtain coverage for construction defect losses under general liability and umbrella policies. Our attorney obtained a summary judgment dismissing all claims.
- Represented a large, New York-based law firm in professional liability litigation and obtained dismissal of all claims without payment.
ATTORNEYS
Merri A. Baldwin
William F. Campbell
Bill Chapman
John G. Heller
Andrea M. Kendrick
Raquel A. Lacayo-Valle
J. Michael Matthews
David Nied
Mark A. White
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