A legal battle over a bungled finance deal for an Indian casino in upstate New York has Dorsey & Whitney scrambling to deflect a multimillion-dollar hit for legal malpractice.

Dorsey & Whitney already has filed an appeal to a judgment of about $1 million from a decision in Minnesota bankruptcy court. At the same time, it is fighting a recommendation from the same bankruptcy court that calls for the firm to pay $2.8 million for its part in the failed casino deal.