Legal Malpractice & Licensing
Representative Cases
The Firm is willing to represent Clients in legal malpractice claims against lawyers, when it is determined that a lawyer has negligently or intentionally caused damages to the Client. Likewise, the Firm is available to defend lawyers against spurious claims by disgruntled Clients, and in disciplinary actions brought bythe State Bar.
Keegan Federal has also been retained, by both plaintiffs’ attorneys and defense counsel, to consult with them on legal negligence and ethics issues, and to testify as an expert witness in legal malpractice actions.
Legal Malpractice; Excessive Fees; Abusive Litigation
After the Client, a family-owned corporation, had fired its previous attorney, that attorney sued the Client for his attorney’s fees. The Firm defended the Client, and defeated the previous lawyer’s claim, proving that the fees he had been charging were unreasonable and unearned. The Firm then filed a new suit against the lawyer for having initiated abusive litigation against the Client. Shortly before that trial was to begin, the lawyer paid the Firm’s settlement demand in full. The Client therefore was made whole and recovered all its damages and costs of litigation from the prior lawyer.
Accountants; Expert Witness Fees; Suit on Account; Trial
A large Atlanta accounting firm had been hired by another law firm to provide expert witness testimony in a complex business dispute suit involving AT&T. The accountants had spent hours analyzing financial records and providing expert opinions for the law firm. The law firm, however, lost the case and then refused to pay the accountants’ expert- witness fees. The accounting firm hired the Firm to collect the money owed. The defendant “stonewalled” and refused to pay. The case went to trial, and the Firm recovered 100% of the Clients’ fees, plus interest, from the defaulting law firm.
Attorneys; Conflict of Interest; Shareholders' Claims
When two friends decided to start a new company, they hired a law firm to incorporate the business. Their lawyers issued stock in the new company to themselves in addition to charging a fee for the incorporation work. Later, when the company became highly profitable, the lawyers claimed a share of the profits, attempted to take control of the business, and sued to enforce their rights as shareholders. The Firm counterclaimed against the lawyers, defended the business owners, defeated the lawyers’ claims, and obtained 100% ownership of the company’s stock for the Clients.
Promisory Note; Interest; Attorneys; Conflict of Interest
An attorney borrowed almost half-a-million dollars from an aging Client on a long-term note, but failed to make the interest payments on time, which the Client failed to notice. When a relative of the Client became involved in managing his affairs for him, the default was discovered and a demand for full payment of the principle and all past-due interest was made on the attorney. The attorney, however, refused to pay the demand, claiming that the note’s compounded interest calculation was illegal, and that a subsequent note, with simple interest only, had been substituted for the original. The Firm was retained, and the full amount of the principle due, plus all interest as provided for in the note, was collected for the Client.
Disbarment; License Reinstatement; Disciplinary Proceeding
The Firm represented a former attorney who had been disbarred for forging prescriptions to obtain controlled substances to support his drug addiction. After he successfully was treated for his addiction and fully rehabilitated, the Firm was successful in getting him reinstated and in convincing the Bar to waive certain requirements that had been established after he had initially been admitted to practice.
Legal Malpractice; Toxic Tort
The Firm represented a multi-national technology company and filed a legal malpractice action against a major law firm which had lost a toxic tort case in which it had failed to properly defend the technology company. The loss had resulted in a multi-million dollar verdict and judgment against the company. After extensive litigation, multiple trial court hearings, and an interlocutory appeal, the Firm obtained a favorable settlement of the company’s legal malpractice claim against its former law firm.
Expert Witness; Lawyer's Duty to Disclose
Keegan testified as an expert witness on behalf of an attorney and his law firm which had been sued by a former client who felt that he had lost a settlement opportunity because of the lawyer’s failure to disclose a settlement demand. While the lawyer should have transmitted the demand, it was clear that his failure was not the cause of any loss to the plaintiff. The defense prevailed.
Expert Witness; Lawyer's Failure to Advise of Statute of Limitations
A lawyer agreed to represent a plaintiff in a personal injury claim but failed to note that the foreign state’s statute of limitations, which is where the claim had to be filed, was only one year instead of the two years allowed in Georgia. Keegan submitted an affidavit on behalf of the lawyer’s former Client, and the case was settled.
Disbarment; Conflict of Interest; Trust Accounts; Emergency Disciplinary Hearing
The Firm successfully defended a lawyer who had failed to respond to the State Bar’s disciplinary action against him, and was therefore about to be disbarred. After appearing before the Disciplinary Committee at an emergency hearing, the Firm obtained a reprieve for the lawyer, and later showed that he was not guilty of the conflict of interest and the abuse of trust funds as he had been accused. No disciplinary action was ever entered against him and he continues in his successful practice.
Associate's Theft of Clients' Files; Injunction
A law firm associate resigned without notice, and removed over 30 clients’ files to his new office without consulting the firm’s owners. The owners called F&H, and suit was filed the same day; a hearing resulted in an injunction requiring the lawyer to return the files immediately.
- additional sample cases available upon request