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Firm That Took On Legal Malpractice Case Now a Defendant in One
The National Law Journal
August 10, 2009
Call it a case of legal malpractice times two.
A former client of Motley Rice claims that the Mount Pleasant, S.C., law firm botched his malpractice case against another law firm that handled his divorce.
Attorney Denis Ventriglia alleged in a lawsuit filed on Thursday that plaintiffs class action firm Motley Rice was inexperienced in pursuing legal malpractice claims and itself committed legal malpractice in his case against North Carolina divorce firm Reid, Lewis, Deese, Nance & Person.
According to the lawsuit, Ventriglia hired Reid Lewis in 2000 to represent him in a divorce from Linda Wilson, an attorney who practiced with Washington's former Shaw Pittman during the early 1990s.
At the heart of the divorce action was a dispute over the couple's prenuptial agreement and the distribution of an alleged $25 million from the sale of Wilson's stake in her family's grocery chain, Wilsons Supermarkets.
The divorce action resulted in no recovery for Ventriglia of the $25 million. Marital assets included a primary residence in Wilmington, N.C., a townhouse in Alexandria, Va., and a beach house on Figure Eight Island, N.C., according to the latest lawsuit. The couple, who have two children, separated in 2000 after 12 years of marriage. Ventriglia's divorce lawyer at the time was Renny Deese, name partner with Reid Lewis. He did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Following the divorce action, Ventriglia hired Motley Rice to pursue a malpractice claim against Reid Lewis. According to Ventriglia's current attorney, Eric Bland of Bland Richter in Columbia, S.C., his client had become friendly with attorneys at Motley Rice, which is known for its asbestos and tobacco litigation, after working together with plaintiffs in several priest sex abuse cases.
The Motley Rice attorneys handling Ventriglia's malpractice action against Reid Lewis were Paul J. Doolittle and Frederick J. Jekel, according to court records. They left Motley Rice earlier this year to form their own law firm, Jekel-Doolittle, in Mt. Pleasant. They did not respond to requests for an interview about the latest lawsuit.
Filed in the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas, Ventriglia v. Motley Rice, 2009-CP-10-4903, alleges that Motley Rice failed to file the lawsuit within the statute of limitations period. The action also alleges that Motley Rice unlawfully dropped Ventriglia as a client just days before the statute -- which it had calendared incorrectly -- was set to expire.
Bland, who represents Ventriglia, said that Motley Rice managers disagreed with Doolittle and Jekel about the firm taking on a legal malpractice case.
He added that Doolittle and Jekel, who had no legal malpractice experience, continued to work on the case even after Motley Rice notified Ventriglia by letter that it was discharging him as a client.
"This case will give a glimpse of when a venerable firm such as Motley Rice has internal disagreements about the type of work it should take on, how and when to discharge a client and what you should and should not do for that client after the purported discharge occurs," Bland said in an e-mail message.
In addition to legal malpractice, the lawsuit claims breach of fiduciary duty.
A spokeswoman for Motley Rice declined to comment on Ventriglia's lawsuit.
