Zeldes, Needle & Cooper
1000 Lafayette Boulevard
P.O. Box 1740
Bridgeport, CT 06601-1740

Phone: (203) 333-9441
Fax: (203) 333-1489
Email: info@znclaw.com

Zeldes, Needle & Cooper, P.C. has developed a recognized, statewide expertise in the representation of lawyers and other professionals.

Lawyers in particular face increasingly complex – and often conflicting – professional obligations. Our representation covers the entire range of issues confronting attorneys in practice: client funds management, conflicts of interest, client confidentiality, court sanctions, client fee agreements, law firm dissolutions, and lawyer advertising. We regularly advise lawyers and firms not only on matters arising out of their client relationships, but also on issues arising out of their interactions with government regulators, courts and disciplinary bodies, and with their professional colleagues both within and outside the lawyer’s firm.

Our effectiveness in this practice area is enhanced by significant experience defending legal malpractice actions and disciplinary (grievance) matters. To this we add ethics and employment counseling, and representation in bar admission hearings, regulatory and criminal investigations, business formations and mergers, and law firm risk management.

Connecticut attorneys and firms facing malpractice actions regularly retain Zeldes, Needle & Cooper where their insurers authorize the selection of defense counsel.  We frequently are called on to defend firms insured by Attorneys’ Liability Assurance Society (ALAS). Other carriers that have approved our engagement by their law firm insureds include The Hartford, CAN, AIG, Reliance National and, in employment matters, Chubb/Executive Risk.

Our clients have included a law firm and its senior trusts and estates partner defending a conflict-of-interest claim arising from a multi-million dollar court-supervised conservatorship. We also have appeared for Connecticut firms of all sizes in professional negligence actions in the areas of complex estate planning, trustee/beneficiary relations, tax advice, business acquisitions, property tax litigation, limited partnership transactions, and commercial real estate and real estate financing. In the employment area, we have represented firms charged with gender, age, and disability discrimination.

Our attorneys have been leaders in the field of professional responsibility law, serving on a local Grievance Panel, the Connecticut Bar Association’s ethics opinion body (the Professional Ethics Committee), and on Bar Association committees charged with proposing rules on the Connecticut attorney discipline process as well as rules governing the practice of law by in-house counsel. They regularly publish articles and conduct continuing legal education seminars for regional, state and corporate bar groups on risk management and law practice management issues. Copies of published articles are available upon request.

To discuss a professional liability or legal malpractice matter, please contact David P. Friedman.