Malpractice Suit Against Adam Leitman Bailey Moves to Arbitration
The New York real estate law firm reached an agreement with its former client to take their dispute to arbitration, which the law firm said was the proper forum to resolve the matter all along.
November 18, 2019 at 03:42 PM
2 minute read
Adam Leitman Bailey
A legal malpractice suit against the real estate law firm of Adam Leitman Bailey and one of its partners has been moved to arbitration, which is what the firm had been pushing for.
Trucking businessman Maurizio Oppedisano and his companies sued the law firm and partner Colin Kaufman earlier this year after being ordered to pay over $3.8 million to a neighboring lot's owner.
Oppedisano filed a malpractice complaint Oct. 7 seeking $5.5 million, saying he trusted his lawyers to win what should have been an easy case. The law firm defendants, represented by Jeffrey Spiegel of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, disputed Oppedisano's version of events and responded by moving for arbitration, citing an arbitration provision in the retainer agreement.
Oppedisano and his companies were previously represented by another firm, Blodnick, Fazio & Associates, in the underlying property dispute. Kaufman has told the Law Journal that his firm came into the case after the court had already ruled against the clients on liability and that his firm conducted a trial "solely on how much money" the clients would have to pay their adversary.
Since the legal malpractice suit was first filed, a judgment of $5.5 million was entered against Oppedisano and his companies in the underlying case, which they're appealing.
A stipulation of discontinuance was filed Friday in the malpractice suit in New York state court, but Judd Burstein, who represents Oppedisano in both the malpractice case and his appeal of the underlying judgment, said the malpractice matter hasn't been settled. The dispute will continue in arbitration, he said.
Bailey has insisted that Oppedisano's malpractice lawsuit is frivolous. In an email to the Law Journal, he said his firm didn't lose the case and said Oppedisano only sued for malpractice because he owed the firm legal fees.
The malpractice suit, Oppedisano v. Adam Leitman Bailey, 158372/2019, was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court. The underlying case, Oppedisano v. Arnold, 709138/2014, is in Queens County Supreme Court.
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