For Lawyers, Professor Sees Growth in Liability To Non-Clients

Once, lawyers didn’t have to worry about their liability to non-clients.

But nowadays, they have to be concerned about their potential liability to third parties in a variety of settings, law professor Jay M. Feinman, writes in his article, “Liability of Lawyers and Accountants to Non-Clients: Negligence and Negligent Misrepresentation,” published in April in the Rutgers University Law Review.

The problem is that the doctrines being applied in cases involving non-client liability vary widely, and court interpretation and application of such doctrines are even more diverse, Feinman writes. He doesn’t offer a solution in the article, but maps out relevant case ...