Representing professionals in a variety of fields has long been an important part of our practice. We defend and resolve claims against attorneys, accountants, psychiatrists, architects, real estate brokers and insurance agents, among others.

National professional-liability insurance companies frequently retain our services to handle malpractice claims and lawsuits in state and federal court in Massachusetts and other jurisdictions. In addition, we are often separately retained by professionals or their firms to act as personal or monitoring counsel. We have extensive experience handling matters before state disciplinary boards, including the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Board of Registration in Medicine. And we are retained as expert witnesses on standard-of-care issues in malpractice cases.

For decades, Sugarman Rogers has served as one of the region’s most experienced advisers to law firms. Our attorneys act as outside ethics counsel for firms confronted with difficult ethical issues, including questions about preserving lawyer-client confidentiality and issues that arise in the context of firm dissolutions and lawyer departures. We also represent law firms and attorneys in fee disputes. Our prominence in this area dates back at least to our serving, in 1989, as counsel to the plaintiffs in the landmark Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court case Meehan v. Shaughnessy, one of the first occasions in which a court clearly addressed the obligations and rights of partners leaving a law firm.

Our professional liability practice benefits from the firm’s strong interdisciplinary approach. We also handle, for example, professional-liability insurance-coverage matters for lawyers and their insurance companies, intellectual property disputes, and business-litigation cases, adding unmatched depth and perspective to the development of strategies and solutions in our professional-liability cases.

Our active involvement in the legal community also contributes to our prominence in the professional-liability field. Our lawyers have served on the Board of Bar Overseers and as appointed Board hearing officers for lawyer-disciplinary matters. Members of the team have also served as presidents of the Boston Bar Association and as co-chairs of its Ethics Committee. We are frequently asked to lecture and contribute to local and national organizations and industry groups on professional-liability issues, particularly matters relating to legal ethics and attorney and accountant malpractice, as well as insurance-coverage issues that arise in this area.

Some recent successes include:

• Successful resolution of SEC ethics charges against accountant-auditor.
• Preliminary and permanent injunctions obtained against website personally attacking lawyer, based on invasion-of-privacy theory, despite claim that lawyer was also a public official.
• Favorable settlement of malpractice dispute between large law firm and university over unsuccessful suit against engineering firm.
• Successful settlement of malpractice dispute between accounting firm and entrepreneur client over alleged missed tax benefits.
• Summary judgment win for Boston accounting firm in malpractice suit brought by owner of group of restaurants, in case involving alleged errors in reporting of meals-tax receipts and non-filing of Form W-2’s, resulting in penalty proceedings.
• $1.13 million award in arbitration of fee dispute between tax consultants and major defense contractor.
• Successful settlement, on behalf of lawyer and law firm, of legal malpractice claim arising from $52 million commercial arbitration award in trademark-licensing dispute.
• Jury verdict in favor of two patent lawyers in federal legal malpractice case arising from dispute over biotech patent, with judgment for law firm on counterclaim for unpaid fees.
• Arbitration victory for tax accountant sued for malpractice by his former clients, prominent pair of authors and lecturers, who claimed he had failed to file tax returns and mishandled IRS audit.