Legal Malpractice 101: Trends, Claims Process, and Strategies for Risk Management

Ronald C. Minkoff | Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC

Ronald C. Minkoff is a partner in the Litigation Group and Chair of the Professional Responsibility Group. Mr. Minkoff is one of New York State’s leading practitioners in the field of attorney ethics and professional responsibility, representing attorneys in a wide variety of matters including law firm partnership agreements, attorney departures and lateral hires, attorney discipline cases, legal fee disputes and legal malpractice and professional liability cases on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants. He also provides ethics opinions and advice to a wide variety of law firm clients. He often serves as an expert witness in legal malpractice lawsuits and attorneys’ fees disputes.

Mr. Minkoff is a member of several Bar Ethics Committees, including the Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct (COSAC) and the Committee on Attorney Professionalism of the New York State Bar Association. He is also the Treasurer of the New York County Lawyers’ Association, Co-Chair of NYCLA’s Task Force on Professionalism, a member of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and a past President of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers.

He has written extensively for the New York Professional Responsibility Report, The Professional Lawyer, The New York Law Journal, and other publications. Mr. Minkoff is the former co-Managing Editor of the New York Legal Ethics Reporter and author of Lexology’s New York Professional Negligence Navigator. He has taught Professional Responsibility at Columbia University School of Law, New York University School of Law, Fordham Law School, Brooklyn Law School and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He is a frequent lecturer on the law of lawyering.

In addition, Mr. Minkoff represents businesses and individual professionals and executives in a wide variety of commercial litigation, including business break-ups, securities lawsuits, and domestic and international trade disputes. He has over 30 years of experience representing law firm partners and law firms in partnership formations, partnership disputes, lateral transitions and law-firm dissolutions. And he represents an internationally known petrochemist in an oil and gas venture dispute.

Mr. Minkoff was a member of Chief Judge Lippman’s Task Force on Commercial Litigation in the 21st Century. He is on the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association. Mr. Minkoff was named Best Lawyers in America’s 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in Legal Malpractice Law – Defendants and 2011 and 2024 “New York Ethics and Professional Responsibility Lawyer of the Year.” He is also recognized by Best Lawyers for his work in Commercial Litigation. He has been named a New Yorkarea “Super Lawyer” for Professional Liability: Defense Work and Business Litigation by Super Lawyers magazine for eighteen consecutive years.

Alejandro H. Cruz | Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler

Alejandro Cruz is a Partner in Patterson Belknap’s Litigation department. Mr. Cruz represents clients in complex commercial litigation, as well as in arbitrations, mediations, and investigations. His practice includes representing law firms and lawyers accused of legal malpractice, companies accused of antitrust violations, and financial institutions in a broad range of litigation, as well as disputes involving transactions and ownership of fine art. Mr. Cruz also defends clients in government investigations by federal and state agencies, as well as representing boards of directors and board committees of public companies in investigations and shareholder disputes.

In addition, as a member of the firm’s Privacy and Data Security group, Mr. Cruz advises clients on a wide array of cybersecurity and privacy issues, including incident response, ransomware, regulatory compliance, and risk mitigation. In 2020, the New York Law Journal named Mr. Cruz a “Rising Star,” a designation recognizing “the region’s most promising lawyers ages 40 and under.” In 2024, Benchmark Litigation recognized Mr. Cruz as a “Future Star” for New York in Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC’s Guide.

Mr. Cruz also maintains an active pro bono practice, including federal civil rights litigation involving the First, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments, the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, as well as defending eviction proceedings and other housing disputes. In 2016, Mr. Cruz received the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project’s Champion of Justice Award for his commitment to pro bono service.

Mr. Cruz is a member of the board of directors of Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, a nonprofit legal services organization that provides support, advocacy, and high quality civil legal representation to poor and low-income families and individuals in New York state. He also sits on the board of directors of White Plains Hospital and the Hudson River School of Music, as well as the board of advisors for the Dartmouth College Center for Social Impact.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Cruz served as a law clerk to the Honorable Eric N. Vitaliano of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York from 2011 to 2012, and prior to that practiced at a New York law firm. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and his A.B., cum laude, from Dartmouth College.

I. Trends in legal malpractice claims | 1:00pm – 1:20pm

• Recent trends in types of claims, size of claims, nature of allegations, etc

II. Insurance for legal malpractice claims | 1:20pm – 1:40pm

• Understanding malpractice insurance coverage

III. Legal malpractice: core concepts and claim elements | 1:40pm – 2:00pm

• Key elements of a malpractice claim, and breakdown of related issues

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

IV. Navigating the claims process with insurance carriers | 2:10pm – 2:30pm

• Importance of notice and communication

V. Partnering for settlement/trial | 2:30pm – 2:50pm

• How to partner with an insurer for settlement or trial

VI. Staying out of trouble: mitigating risk | 2:50pm – 3:10pm