Archive for the ‘Firm News’ Category
Accolades, Firm News
8 from Sowell Gray included in 2016 Best Lawyers in America, including 2 Lawyers of the Year
COLUMBIA, SC – Two members of Sowell Gray Stepp & Laffitte, LLC, Betsy Gray and Becky Laffitte have been honored as 2016 Lawyers of the Year while six of their colleagues at the firm were also recognized in the 2016 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. The national publication places the Sowell Gray members […]
Accolades, Firm News
Cal Watson invited to join the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance
Sowell Gray Stepp & Laffitte, LLC is pleased to announce that Cal Watson has been invited to join the prestigious Claims and Litigation Management Alliance. The CLM is a nonpartisan alliance comprised of thousands of insurance companies, corporations, Corporate Counsel, Litigation and Risk Managers, claims professionals and attorneys. Through education and collaboration the organization’s goals […]
ELECT Blog Archives, Firm News
Do We Live in a Healthy Democracy?
Recently, the Center for American Progress Action Fund (“Center”) issued a report entitled, The Health of State Democracies.[1] The Center essentially is a think tank that has policy teams in major issues areas and issues reports on these various topics to attempt to shape the debate.[2] The report “aims to take a broader approach to […]
Firm News
Sowell Gray Supports Efforts to Remove Confederate Flag
Sowell Gray Stepp & Laffitte, LLC joins with South Carolina’s Governor and the state’s many political, business, educational, and community leaders in the call to take down the Confederate flag as swiftly as possible. Given the tragic events in Charleston two weeks ago, this is a time for unity for all South Carolinians and an […]
Firm News
No Legal Malpractice Claim Following Settlement to Which Client Agreed
By Will Jordan Attorney represented Client in a workers’ compensation claim. Following settlement of the workers’ comp claim, Client filed a legal malpractice action against Attorney, alleging that Attorney gave incorrect legal advice that lead to the compromise and release and, but for the incorrect legal advice, Client would not have agreed to the settlement […]
Firm News
No Legal Malpractice for Advice that is in Accord with the Weight of Applicable Law
By Will Jordan During the course of litigation pending in federal district court in Florida, Client sought and obtained advice from Lawyer about Client’s contractual exposure to the opposing party’s attorney’s fees under Florida law. Lawyer advised Client that Client did not face a significant risk of exposure to attorney’s fees. Ultimately, the U.S Court […]
Firm News
Ineffective Assistance of Counsel ≠ Legal Malpractice
By Will Jordan A couple of weeks ago, inspired by the developing story of Adnan Syed, we wrote about the interplay between a criminal defendant’s request for post-conviction relief on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel and his claim for legal malpractice against his defense attorney. In that post, we wrote that “[i]n order […]
Firm News
NY Court Enforces Arbitration Agreement in Engagement Letter
By Will Jordan Client retained Attorney to represent him in two matters involving his service as a trustee. Client signed an engagement letter that provided that Attorney and Client would arbitrate “any dispute arising out of or relating to this agreement and/or the legal services rendered hereunder.” Client filed a lawsuit against Attorney, alleging legal […]
Firm News
On Proximate Causation and Foreseeability
By Will Jordan Apologies for the radio silence. We vowed not to allow this much time to pass in between posts, but the past week brought a trip to NY for a conference and a jury duty summons and, before we knew it, the vow was broken. But we’re back on track. Today we look […]
Firm News
The “No Harm, No Legal Mal” Defense
By Will Jordan In a legal malpractice case arising out of an attorney’s allegedly negligent handling of litigation, the crux of the legal malpractice case is proving that the outcome of the underlying case should have been different but for the attorney’s negligence. When a legal malpractice case arises out of allegedly negligent advice given […]