Law Firm Not Vicariously Liable for Malpractice by Contract Partner

A law firm has no vicarious liability for alleged malpractice for work done by a contract partner under a private arrangement with a client, a New Jersey appeals court ruled on Thursday. The decision came in a 10-year-old suit seeking millions of dollars from Newark, N.J.'s Sills Cummis Epstein & Gross on account of alleged malpractice by former judge and Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano, who was with the firm in 1997 and 1998.