FKB's Andrew S. Kowlowitz and Eric D. Mercurio obtain dismissal of a legal malpractice action on behalf of an education union attorney.8/15/10

FKB's client, a Long Island attorney, is affiliated with a Long Island-based teaching administrators' union. The Plaintiff in this legal malpractice action was formerly a teaching administrator for a Long Island School District. The Defendant attorney was previously appointed by the teaching administrators' union to represent Plaintiff in connection with an employment dispute with the School District. After the School District terminated Plaintiff's employment, Plaintiff filed suit against, inter alia, his attorney in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, alleging that the Defendant's malpractice caused the School District to terminate his position.

Rather than proceed with costly, lengthy discovery, FKB filed a pre-answer motion to dismiss the Complaint pursuant to FRCP Rule 12(b)(6) on grounds that Plaintiff's legal malpractice claim was preempted by federal labor law, and that attorneys who perform services for and on behalf of a union may not be held liable in malpractice to individual union members (such as Plaintiff) where the services performed constituted part of the collective bargaining process.

The motion practice resulted in dismissal and a speedy resolution of the legal malpractice action.

FKB's client was represented by Andrew S. Kowlowitz and Eric D. Mercurio.

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