We granted this application for interlocutory appeal to consider whether a party to a legal dispute may bring an action against an adversary’s attorney for negligence. We conclude that such an action is inappropriate because the plaintiff has alleged no legal duty owed to him by his opponent’s counsel. We therefore reverse the trial court’s denial of defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings. Plaintiff John Keller is a former vice-president of First Atlanta Securities, LLC First Atlanta. When Keller began work for First Atlanta, he signed an employment agreement, attached to the verified answer as an exhibit. That agreement contains a section headed “Covenants” governing proprietary information, ownership of property, nonsolicitation, and noncompetition. It also provides that First Atlanta “may disclose the prohibitions contained in this Section 7 to any person who at the time employs Executive or is considering entering into any business relationship with Executive.”
In late 2000 or early 2001, Keller began negotiations with Neidiger Tucker Bruner, a competitor of First Atlanta with plans to open an Atlanta office. In January 2001, First Atlanta’s chairman wrote a letter to the president of Neidiger, informing him that First Atlanta intended to rely on the terms of the employment agreement, enclosed in the letter. Neidiger responded that it considered the employment agreement invalid based on its counsel’s opinion. In February 2001, appellant Long Aldridge & Norman LLP now McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, as counsel for First Atlanta, sent letters to counsel for Keller and Neidiger expressing concerns regarding Keller and several other employees, including James Steinkirchner, who had left First Atlanta and gone to work for Neidiger. These letters referenced certain documents, computer disks, and other items which were missing and “presumably in the possession of Mr. Keller and/or Mr. Steinkirchner and/or Neidiger Tucker Bruner,” as well as reiterating that Keller and Steinkirchner were in violation of their employment agreements. Keller now contends these communications were defamatory.
