Law Firms
Malpractice Suit Allowed Against Mintz Levin’s NY Managing Partner
Posted Sep 11, 2008, 04:56 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A Manhattan judge has refused to dismiss a malpractice suit that claims the New York managing partner of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo delayed filing a lawsuit because he was too preoccupied with his career moves.
The New York Law Journal has details of the malpractice lawsuit’s allegations. Managing partner Robert Bodian was a name partner at Bodian & Eames in 1998 when he began representing the malpractice plaintiff, Joseph Shelley, in a family business dispute. Bodian moved on to the former O'Sullivan, Graev & Karabell and then to Mintz Levin. He filed the suit on Shelley’s behalf in 2000, and a judge dismissed it based on the statute of limitations in 2001. Shelley’s malpractice suit names both Bodian and Mintz Levin as defendants.
Judge Emily Jane Goodman ruled the malpractice suit could go forward, rejecting the law firm’s argument that Shelley would have been unable to collect a judgment in the underlying action, the New York Law Journal story says. She said the argument is irrelevant in a malpractice action.
The malpractice suit also claims that Bodian and Mintz Levin forged an affidavit in the underlying action, setting an improper date that caused Shelley to lose the statute of limitations argument. Lawyer Howard Elman, who is defending Bodian and Mintz Levin, told the publication the allegation is “frivolous on its face.”