Matthew Lee (Partner-Washington, DC) and Nicole Melvani (Of Counsel, Washington, DC) prevailed on a motion for summary judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in a legal malpractice against the firm’s attorney client. Matt and Nicole argued that the plaintiff – himself a lawyer – was unable, as a matter of law, to prove the “case-within-the-case,” which requires that a legal malpractice plaintiff adduce sufficient evidence proving he would have received a more favorable result in the underlying litigation (in this case the plaintiff was denied a Chapter 7 discharge of his extensive debts due to his having fraudulently transferred his residence to his newlywed wife and himself as tenants by the entirety six months before filing for bankruptcy protection). Even though the prima facie element of causation is an issue ordinarily left for the jury to decide, in this case the Court ruled that reasonable minds could not differ – that plaintiff could not prove a better result, and thus he was unable to prove causation as a matter of law. The plaintiff did not note an appeal of the summary judgment ruling, and that order is now final.