Ishmael

This is a legal malpractice action in which the plaintiff-client appeals from a summary judgment granted the defendant-attorney. The factual narrative will possess heightened significance against a backdrop of general doctrine:

Actionable legal malpractice is compounded of the same basic elements as other kinds of actionable negligence: duty, breach of duty, proximate cause, damage. (Hege v. Worthington, Park & Worthington, 209 Cal.App.2d 670, 677 [ 26 Cal.Rptr. 132 ]; see Modica v. Crist, 129 Cal.App.2d 144, 146-148 [ 276 P.2d 614 ]; 1 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (1954) 73-74.) Touching the first element, duty, the general rule is that “the attorney, by accepting employment to give legal advice or to render other legal services, impliedly agrees to use such skill, prudence, and diligence as lawyers of ordinary skill and capacity commonly possess and exercise in the performance of the tasks which they undertake. (Estate of Kruger, 130 Cal. 621, 626 [ 63 P. 31 ] ; Moser v. Western Harness Racing Assn., 89 Cal.App.2d 1, 7 [ 200 P.2d 7 ]; Armstrong v. Adams, 102 Cal.App. 677, 684 [ 283 P. 871 ]; see Wade, The Attorney’s Liability for Negligence (1959) 12 Vanderbilt L.Rev. 755, 762-765; 5…