Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly quotes Lou Ciavarra in “Duty of LLC’s Attorneys Reaches Non-client Minority”

July 27, 2017

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly quoted Lou Ciavarra in an article, “Duty of LLC’s attorneys reaches non-client minority”. Ciavarra commented on a case where lawyers for a limited liability company could be sued for breaching a fiduciary duty to the LLC’s minority members despite the lack of an attorney-client relationship. He defended that lawyers don’t normally include minority owners of a small company in legal matters, “However, attorney Louis M. Ciavarra said leaving the minority owners out of the loop is not necessarily unusual. ‘For those of us who regularly represent small companies, we work with the officers and/or the managers, not with the minority owners,’ he said.”

He also said that this ruling lessens the ability for a lawyer to fearlessly and vehemently represent his/her client, “With the ruling, Ciavarra said, the Appeals Court has taken another step in eroding a lawyer’s ability to zealously and aggressively represent his clients. As long as attorneys avoid conflicts of interest, the client should be able to rely on his lawyer’s advice, ‘and we should be able to give advice without worrying about getting sued by non-clients,’ he added.”

Subscribers can read the full article on the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly website.