Professional Liability
There is an ever-increasing trend in civil litigation by claimants’ counsel to extend the liability net to include professionals whenever possible. Claimants view professionals as targets of opportunity for three primary reasons: (1) highly educated and licensed professionals are expected to adhere to the standards of practice in their fields; (2) most professionals carry liability insurance; and (3) professionals closely guard their reputations as the key to their livelihoods. The statistics are telling – there is a significant likelihood that every professional practicing in the public arena will be sued at least once in his or her career. When the unfortunate time comes, the professional must turn to counsel who is not only an expert in navigating the legal issues while protecting the client’s reputation and practice but also who is highly knowledgeable in the professional’s field of practice.
Possessing these qualities, we have developed extensive experience defending professional liability claims against Design Professionals and Attorneys:
Scott McDaniel has been representing Design Professionals for 25 years and possesses special insight into the practice of Engineering and Architecture gained through his 11 years as a practicing Registered Professional Engineer. This experience affords him the rare ability to connect on a peer-to-peer level with the Firm’s design clients in order to develop superior defensive strategies.
Ben Saunier has been representing Design Professionals for 12 years both defending claims and providing business counseling.
Melissa East has become an expert in professional liability defense through her 10 years of litigating professional negligence claims.
Our team is highly skilled at breaking down and exposing flaws in claimants’ experts’ work product, which often determines the outcome of lawsuits. We have successfully defended individual design professionals on modest projects, as well as design firms exposed to tens of millions of dollars of liability in state, federal and tribal courts.
Our team is also skilled in defending Attorneys charged with malpractice. Our breadth of legal experience equips us to quickly assess the issues presented in the underlying representation to assist the client and its insurer to reach the best and earliest feasible outcome. Our clients rely on us to apply strategies to minimize or eliminate their exposure by effectively managing the legal and procedural issues in the lawsuit while working to win the “case within the case.”
National insurers have appointed our firm to their counsel panels to defend design and legal malpractice claims. These continuing relationships are a testament to our value to both the insurer and the insured. We define success not only by the results we achieve for our clients, but we also believe that if the client is satisfied with the representation they received, they will keep their business with their insurer. When clients are confident that their insurers will retain skilled and caring counsel to protect their interests, they tend to be long-term customers.