Woodruff O'Hair Posner & Salinger Inc Sued for Malpractice and Over $1 Million Damages by Former Client: Edward Freidberg Now Representing Plaintiff

Malpractice Attorney Edward Freidberg Takes Helm of $1 Million Legal Malpractice Case Against Woodruff, O'Hair & Posner

Legal malpractice attorney Edward Freidberg 

Nationally recognized malpractice attorney Edward Freidberg last week became the attorney-of-record representing plaintiff Wei-Jen (Harrison) Luan in her long-running legal malpractice case against prominent family law firm Woodruff, O'Hair and Posner Inc., and firm partner Thomas Woodruff. The original lawsuit was filed in 2004, and the firm is now known as Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner and Salinger Inc. 

Luan alleges that Woodruff's malpractice during her divorce resulted in more than $1 million in losses in connection with the sale of real property held in a family trust. Freidberg is a veteran professional liability attorney and pioneer in the area of legal malpractice litigation, according to the firm's website: 

In 1975 the California Supreme Court affirmed a legal malpractice jury judgment Mr. Freidberg won for his client which broadened the boundaries of liability of attorneys. This landmark decision has been cited in over 140 decisions since. Smith v. Lewis (1975) 13 Cal.3d 349, 78 A.L.R. 3d 321.Time Magazine in 1976 described Freidberg as "pioneering in what promises to be a busy new activity in the field of professional malpractice: Big-money court cases against negligent lawyers." His work in legal malpractice was profiled in a 16-minute segment of the CBS news program "60 Minutes" in 1987, was featured in a lengthy front page article in the Wall Street Journal and was chronicled in the "Million Dollar Lawyers" by Joseph C. Gulden (1978, G.P. Putnam and Sons, New York).

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In a 1994 New York Times article about a boom in malpractice cases against lawyers and law firms, and the relatively small number of attorneys specializing in malpractice work, Freidberg acknowledged that the nature of his work rendered him an outsider in the legal profession.

Edward Freidberg is no less a pariah, excluded from lunches and dinners at which contracts are made and deals done. But then, he said, "I'm not a very social creature."...[A]mong their colleagues in the legal profession, these practitioners are not popular. "I think I have their healthy respect," said Mr. Freidberg, who heads the five-member Freidberg Law Corporation in Sacramento, Calif. "But no, they don't like me...There are idiots out there practicing law," Mr. Freidberg said. "I would say one in four trial lawyers is incompetent or routinely negligent." And clients, he said, have gotten wise. 

Sacramento Family Law Court watchdogs and court reform advocates are closely watching the litigation and allege that the name partners at Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner and Salinger are emblematic of family court corruption and cronyism. For our complete coverage of the firm, click here. For additional reporting on the people and issues in this post, click the corresponding labels below the document. 

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Million Dollar Malpractice Case Against Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger, Inc. Substitution of Plaintiff... by Sacramento Family Court News