September 26, 2018: The Third District affirmed a trial court’s order dismissing the appellant/plaintiff’s complaint with prejudice based on her failure to state a cause of action against the University of Miami’s Children and Youth Law Clinic. The court agreed with firm attorneys Robert Klein and Andrew Feldman that plaintiff was not a client of the clinic, which represented her daughter in a guardianship proceeding, and she therefore lacked standing to sue the University for legal malpractice. The court also rejected the plaintiff’s alternative theory that she was an intended third party beneficiary of the representation and could therefore allege an exception to Florida’s contractual privity requirement.
The case is Driessen v. University of Miami School of Law, 3D18-999, 2018 WL 4608760 (Fla. 3d DCA Sept. 26, 2018)