SUZANNE BURKE SPENCER

Suzanne Burke Spencer and the other lawyers at Sall Spencer are among the relatively few attorneys who regularly represent plaintiffs in legal malpractice actions.

“We represent clients of lawyers who have made mistakes or acted unethically,” she said. “It’s an important area of practice … and very gratifying.”

“Given what we’ve seen lately … on the news, I think it’s more important now than ever to have people willing to go after attorneys who are not fair to their clients,” she added. “Making mistakes is one thing. Fiduciary obligations are another, and we’ve seen that the State Bar certainly isn’t up to the task.”

She first began handling aggrieved clients’ cases in 1995, as well as general commercial litigation for a time since then. Recently, she has noticed an increase in malpractice claims against trust and estate attorneys.

“As the population is aging and boomers are passing on, a lot of issues that arose from estate planning that was done a long time ago” are beginning to show up, she said. “I think we’re going to keep seeing that. … It makes sense.”

Cases against family law attorneys also are relatively common because of the high emotions involved. “We reluctantly get involved in those,” Burke Spencer said. “We tend to be very careful about the cases that we bring to make sure we feel confident that the lawyer actually did something wrong.”

She said she is working on a very interesting and potentially significant case right now that is still in the pre-filing stage. She is representing plaintiffs from a class action “of a certain type” who are considering litigation against their attorneys.

“Because of the way that class actions are being used these days, I could see those types of claims coming up in the future, Burke Spencer said.

In addition to suing lawyers for malpractice, Burke Spencer and her firm also provide ethics counseling to lawyers to help them avoid being sued or to answer other ethics questions, such as on conflicts of interest.

They also sometimes defend lawyers sued for malpractice. “I actually enjoy defense as well,” she said, but most times getting those cases requires being on insurance companies’ panels of approved firms.

Over the years, Burke Spencer has served on several bar ethics committees, including a term as chair of the State Bar’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct. She is now a co-chair of the California Lawyers Association and the Orange County Bar Association ethics committees.

She also is a member of the local federal court’s disciplinary committee. It reviews complaints against lawyers practicing in the Central District of California and advises the judges on any actions. “I think it’s an important aspect of the courts to have a mechanism for enforcing attorney ethics and not just rely on the State Bar, which has its hands full,” she said.

– Don DeBenedictis