Hidden Clients: When Do Lawyers Owe Nonclients a Duty of Care?

As an attorney that regularly handles legal malpractice cases, I frequently recite the standard elements of a professional negligence claim: duty, breach, causation and damages. Attorneys must recognize that when a client provides instructions intended to benefit a third party, the attorney may owe a duty of care to those intended beneficiaries of the attorney's services. [Extracted from the article]