Matt Gass and Joe Kingma won a motion to dismiss against a seller. The seller alleged malpractice, misrepresentation and intentional interference; essentially that the purchaser wanted to get out of their agreement and used the accountant to achieve that result. Joe and Matt filed an early motion to dismiss and prevailed on all the claims. Claims arising from the accountant’s role in mergers and acquisitions are definitely on the rise.

For informational purposes only. Past success does not indicate the likelihood of success in future cases.

Joe Kingma and Matt Gass prevailed for a CPA who had served as an expert in a high value divorce. Joe’s takeaways include: many divorce clients just can’t stop fighting; no accounting engagement is ever perfect; and, justice often triumphs!

For informational purposes only. Past success does not indicate the likelihood of success in future cases.

Joe Kingma and the Accounting Malpractice Defense Team presented Risk Management for Audit and Accounting Firms at The Buckhead Club on  May 19. Please contact Michelle Mattox at mmattox@cskl.law for information regarding this program.

Copeland Stair Kingma & Lovell, LLP is pleased to announce our Attorneys named to 2022 Best Lawyers_® lists in multiple categories and office locations.

• Anna Beaton, 2022 Best Lawyers_®; Ones To Watch recognition for Insurance Law and Transportation Law in Atlanta, GA
• Sarah E. Butler,  2022 Best Lawyers_® recognition for Litigation - Construction and Litigation - Insurance in Charleston, SC
• Matthew Gass, 2022 Best Lawyers_®; Ones To Watch recognition for Commercial Litigation in Atlanta, GA
• Erin E. Gomez, 2022 Best Lawyers_®; Ones To Watch recognition for Litigation - Labor and Employment; Personal Injury Litigation - Defendants; and Professional Malpractice Law in Chattanooga, TN
• Eric Frisch, 2022 Best Lawyers_® recognition for Litigation - Health Care and Medical Malpractice Law - Defendants in Atlanta, GA
• Johannes S. Kingma, 2022 Best Lawyers_® recognition for Legal Malpractice Law – Defendants in Atlanta, GA
• Angela C. Kopet, 2022 Best Lawyers_® recognition for Insurance Law and Litigation - Insurance in Chattanooga, TN
• Gary Lovell, Jr., 2022 Best Lawyers_® recognition for Medical Malpractice Law – Defendants and Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants in Atlanta, GA and Charleston, SC
• Rolfe M. Martin, 2022 Best Lawyers_® recognition for Medical Malpractice Law – Defendants in Atlanta, GA
• Dan B. Millman, 2022 Best Lawyers_®; Ones To Watch recognition for Commercial Litigation in Atlanta, GA
• Paul Sperry, 2022 Best Lawyers_® recognition for Construction Law and Litigation - Construction in Charleston, SC
• Kent T. Stair, 2022 Best Lawyers_® recognition for Construction Law and Legal Malpractice Law – Defense and Litigation - Construction in Atlanta, GA and Charleston, SC
• Fred M. Valz, III, 2022 Best Lawyers_® recognition for Insurance Law in Atlanta, GA
• Lee C. Weatherly, 2022 Best Lawyers_® recognition for Personal Injury Litigation - Defendants in Charleston, SC

Best Lawyers_® is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. Recognition in Best Lawyers_® is widely regarded by both clients and legal professionals as a significant honor, conferred on a lawyer by his or her peers. It is no secret around the CSKL offices that these lawyers are among the very best, and are great leaders and role models for the rest of Copeland Stair Kingma & Lovell!

 

Copeland, Stair, Kingma & Lovell, LLP is pleased to announce three attorneys have been elevated to partner effective January 1, 2021.  We congratulate each of them for this achievement and couldn’t be prouder of the manner in which they have distinguished themselves, both in the courtroom and within the community.

Our newest partners each exhibit our Firm Fundamentals in all that they do. These lawyers continue to grow, shine and demonstrate leadership. We are proud to see their progress, and know that they will help the Firm achieve our ultimate goal of superior client service for years to come.

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Clinton F. Fletcher, in the Atlanta office of CSKL, focuses his practice in general liability.  In particular, Clinton has extensive experience in the areas of products and premises liability, trucking, aerospace, construction equipment and material handling equipment. With respect to Clinton’s aerospace experience, Clinton has defended large air carriers from personal injury and cargo loss claims, applying laws and principles arising out of the Montreal Convention, Air Carrier Access Act, Carmack Amendment and various Federal Aviation Regulations. As Georgia counsel for two major auto manufacturers, Clinton has significant experience defending warranty claims arising under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and Georgia’s Lemon Law.  On behalf of one auto manufacturer’s financing arm, Clinton defended consumer protection claims in both state and federal courts. Clinton is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell and was named to Georgia Super Lawyers Rising Star list consecutively from 2009 to 2014.  He currently is the Georgia State Membership Chair for the Defense Research Institute (DRI) and recently cycled off as chair of DRI’s Recreational Products Specialized Litigation Group.  In addition to his practice with the firm, he is a published author and respected presenter.  A devoted volunteer, Clinton’s most recent service was on the Board of Directors for St. Jude’s Recovery Center, a non-profit, comprehensive addiction treatment center serving the Metro Atlanta area.

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Matthew Gass is a new partner in the Firm’s Atlanta office. His practice is focused primarily in the area of commercial litigation. Matt has experience in legal and accounting malpractice and director officer litigation. Prior to joining the firm, Matt was Staff Attorney to the Honorable Chief Judge Ben W. Studdard of Henry County State Court. During his clerkship, Matt was a volunteer coach for a local high school in the State Bar of Georgia’s Mock Trial Competition and a co-chair of the Young Lawyers Division Judicial Law Clerk Committee.  Before moving to Atlanta, Matt worked as a summer associate in Madison Square Garden Company’s legal department. In 2013, Matt received his Juris Doctorate from Wake Forest School of Law where he was the Senior Notes and Comments Editor for the Wake Forest Law Review, a teaching assistant, and Chief Justice of the school’s Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity chapter. While at Wake, Matt received awards for excellence in Constitutional Law, Trademarks, Intellectual Property Licensing, and Legal Analysis Writing and Research. He graduated summa cum laude from Syracuse University’s Maxwell school in 2008 with a degree in political science. Between college and law school, Matt was awarded the Roth Fellowship to work in the New York State Senate and served one year with AmeriCorps in Boston.

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Lacey L. Houghton is based in the firm’s Charleston office and practices general civil litigation across Georgia and South Carolina.  Her current practice focuses on cases involving medical malpractice, correctional healthcare, and premises liability. Lacey handles a wide variety of professional liability matters, and  frequently defends lawyers, accountants, real estate and banking professionals, as well as corporate directors and officers  in errors and omissions liability cases. In addition to serving her clients through the conclusion of trial court proceedings, Lacey has significant appellate experience in state and federal court. Prior to joining Copeland, Stair, Kingma & Lovell,  Lacey worked at a business litigation firm in Saint Simons Island, Georgia, where her practice included an emphasis on banking and lending litigation, as well as real estate, land use, and development litigation. Lacey held executive leadership roles in both the local and Georgia State Bar Young Lawyers Division, and served as legal advisor for the Board of Directors of United Way of Coastal Georgia. Lacey earned her B.A. in International Affairs from the University of Georgia, summa cum laude, and her J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law, cum laude.  

Commercial Litigation Blog Posting by Matt Gass. Matt Gass and Joe Kingma won a motion to dismiss against a seller after a deal fell through. The seller alleged malpractice, misrepresentation and intentional interference; essentially that the purchaser wanted to get out of their agreement and used the accountant to achieve that result. Joe and Matt filed an early motion to dismiss and prevailed on all the claims. Claims arising from the accountant’s role in mergers and acquisitions are definitely on the rise, and we are handling several more of those now, so please check back for updates. Please click here for more information on our Commercial Litigation Blog.

Commercial Litigation Blog posting by Matthew Gass. Causation continues to be one of the toughest hurdles for clients suing their former lawyers. In legal malpractice cases arising from litigation, one element of a plaintiff’s case will be the merits of that underlying litigation. If the underlying case was unwinnable, then losing is not malpractice. Relying on this rationale, Georgia courts have been frequently dismissing malpractice cases. Sometimes an attorney’s best defense is to attack the merits of the underlying claims he or she had previously argued in favor of. Causation continues to be one of the toughest hurdles for clients suing their former lawyers. In legal malpractice cases arising from litigation, one element of a plaintiff’s case will be the merits of that underlying litigation. If the underlying case was unwinnable, then losing is not malpractice. Relying on this rationale, Georgia courts have been frequently dismissing malpractice cases. Sometimes an attorney’s best defense is to attack the merits of the underlying claims he or she had previously argued in favor of. In Benson et al. v. Ward, the Georgia Court of Appeals held that a defendant attorney was entitled to summary judgment in a legal malpractice lawsuit because his former client could not show that the trial court abused its discretion dividing marital property. The plaintiff’s lawyer failed to timely file an appeal of the divorce decree. Because the trial court has broad discretion in how it divides marital property, the plaintiff couldn’t meet the high burden of showing that the division would have been reversed if the appeal had been properly filed. In McDonough v. Taylor English Duma, LLP, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of a legal malpractice lawsuit based on Georgia’s non-assignment statute (O.C.G.A. § 44-12-24). The plaintiff was a successor in interest to a bank on a note and guaranties that sued the guarantor for fraudulently transferring property to his wife. The plaintiff’s attorney did not add the wife to the lawsuit before she transferred the property to a bona fide purchaser. As a result, the plaintiff couldn’t execute the judgment against the transferred property. The Court held that the plaintiff could not have prevailed on the fraudulent transfer claim because a right of action for fraud is not assignable. Because the fraudulent transfer claim was not viable, the legal malpractice claim also failed. It is important, however, to note that the Georgia legislature has passed the Uniform Voidable Transfer Act, which expressly allows assignees to pursue fraudulent transfer claims. Even so, the McDonough decision is a good reminder that a valid defense to the underlying claims can sever proximate cause in the legal malpractice lawsuit. These cases emphasize that the viability of underlying claims are often the lynchpin in legal malpractice lawsuits. Once a legal malpractice lawsuit is filed, however, an attorney needs to be comfortable switching from offense to defense. This can put attorneys in the awkward spot of challenging their own positions they had taken representing their former client. As the Georgia courts continue to show us, attacking proximate cause due to failures of the claims underlying the legal malpractice lawsuit can often be the best defense. For more information on our Commercial Litigation Blog or to subscribe, click here.