Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders is contending with a $59 million malpractice lawsuit filed by former client Judlau Contracting, a New York-based construction firm. The legal action, initiated in the New York State Supreme Court, attributes the alleged malpractice to both the firm and its partner, Frank Cara.
- Troutman and Cara are accused of “textbook malpractice” during their representation of Judlau in two cases beginning in 2016 and 2017.
- The claim asserts that Cara’s involvement as general counsel to a Judlau competitor during active litigation constituted a clear conflict of interest. This competitor was Iovino Enterprises, with whom Cara held an outside general counsel role starting in 2018, later moving to an in-house executive role from November 2019 through July 2020.
Judlau alleges that these actions breached Cara’s professional obligations and contributed to two judgments against them totaling approximately $60 million. The complaint emphasizes that Judlau, expecting to benefit from Troutman’s reputed construction law expertise, instead experienced significant professional negligence.
According to the lawsuit, Cara joined Pepper Hamilton in 2015, prior to its merger with Troutman Sanders in 2020 to form Troutman Pepper. He had a prior tenure at Connell Foley and also served as Judlau’s executive vice president and general counsel earlier. Judlau’s legal representation in the current lawsuit is provided by [Rottenstreich Farley Bronstein Fisher Potter Hodas LLP and Barclay Damon LLP](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/troutman-pepper-hit-with-59-million-malpractice-lawsuit-in-ny).
The case is cited as Judlau Contracting Inc. v. Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP, Frank T. Cara, Docket No. 654562/2024, NY Sup. Ct., Sept. 4, 2024.