Fraud Claims Against Attorney For Conflict of Interest Dismissed on Appeal

A year ago, I reported on a New York County Supreme Court decision denying a defendant law firm’s motion to dismiss fraud and misrepresentation claims that were based upon the law firm’s alleged misrepresentation to the client that it had no conflict of interest in defending the client in litigation. See “Attorney’s Failure to Disclose Conflict of Interest Before Accepting Representation Can Constitute Fraud and Negligent Misrepresentation.” The lower Court in that case allowed the fraud and negligent misrepresentation claims against the attorneys to go forward based upon the alleged statement to the client that the law firm had no conflict of interest when it in fact did have a conflict. The Appellate Division, First Department, has now reversed that decision and dismissed the fraud and misrepresentation claims, in Federal Ins. Co. v Lester Schwab Katz & Dwyer, LLP, 2022 NY Slip Op 07149 (1^st Dep’t Decided Dec. 15, 2022).

Read more here.