Professional Liability and Disciplinary Proceedings

Extensive Experience Defending Claims Against Professionals

We have deep experience representing clients of all sizes, from individuals to large national accounting firms, insurance brokers, and law firms, who find themselves defending against allegations that they have breached their professional obligations.
We defend our clients who are professionals in disciplinary proceedings in which their ability to practice law, medicine, or psychology may be at stake.
Our experience spans state and federal courts, as well as administrative proceedings.

Attention to Critical Issues

Malpractice actions and other professional liability cases implicate not only the particular work challenged by the lawsuit, but also the reputation and livelihood of those professionals who are forced to defend against the allegations. Disciplinary proceedings against a professional have the potential to end that person’s career. Even the threat of these types of cases can be extremely damaging to our clients.

At Rogers & Hardin, we understand the unique legal and reputational issues posed by professional liability actions and disciplinary proceedings. That’s why, when our clients face such problems, we tackle them with the direct approach. Head on.

Experience Defending Against a Variety of Claims

We have represented lawyers, accountants, insurance brokers, psychologists, doctors, and other professionals in a variety of matters arising out of their duties to their clients or patients. These cases can involve claims of fraud, breach of contract, or aiding and abetting, in addition to the allegations of professional negligence. Complex issues often arise in these actions and the attorneys at Rogers & Hardin have the breadth of knowledge and experience to address them.

Our experience includes:

Representing national accounting firms in malpractice and breach of contract actions.
Defending doctors, psychologists, social workers, and other mental health professionals in disciplinary proceedings before their licensing boards.
Handling professional liability actions in state and federal courts against lawyers and law firms.
Defending lawyers in proceedings before the State Bar of Georgia.
Representing major insurance brokers in connection with claims asserting failure to place coverage, misrepresentations as to coverage, and negligence as to the scope of coverage.

Auditors and Accountants

We have successfully represented clients ranging from individual auditors to large national accounting firms in malpractice cases at both the state and federal level.

Defending Auditors Against Malpractice

Client: A national accounting firm.
Challenge: The malpractice allegations against the accounting firm related to audits of a large public company conducted over the course of several years that spanned multiple states and countries. Most of the relevant staff no longer worked for the audit firm and hundreds of thousands of pages of audit workpapers were at issue.
Outcome: By working with the client’s in-house accounting and outside auditing experts, we were able to reach a favorable settlement with the plaintiffs – before they began the expensive process of conducting depositions of the accountants who had worked on the audits and of other witnesses.

Lawyers

When lawyers and law firms – whether in Atlanta or beyond – face professional liability claims, they frequently seek out Rogers & Hardin to represent them. Defending such claims has always been a core part of our practice. We also represent lawyers in disciplinary proceedings before the State Bar and in the courts.

Physicians and Mental Health Professionals

Doctors and mental health professionals (such as counselors, psychologists, and licensed clinical social workers) face unique circumstances when confronted with disciplinary proceedings before their licensing boards. These administrative proceedings are governed by their own set of rules and procedures. Attorneys at Rogers & Hardin have a long history of successfully defending individuals in such actions.

Direct Approach to Licensing Proceedings

Client: A psychologist facing sanctions by her licensing board.
Issues: The psychologist was alleged to have violated various state and psychology board rules because of her contact with a patient in order to investigate asserted inappropriate conduct by a mental health professional employed by her practice.
Challenge: To make clear that the psychologist had a responsibility to follow-up on information that one of her employees may have engaged in wrong-doing and that her contact with the patient was appropriate in this context.
Outcome: We persuaded the administrative law judge that the licensing board did not establish any violation of laws or regulations governing psychologists. The request to sanction the psychologist was denied in its entirety.

Quick Contacts

Dan F. Laney
Partner
Direct 404.420.4624
dlaney@rh-law.com
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Christopher J. Willis
Partner
Direct 404.420.4628
cwillis@rh-law.com
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