Federici

KRIEGLER J.

Plaintiff Kathlynn Federici appeals from the judgment and order granting the demurrer of the accountancy firm of Gursey, Schneider & Co. and its employee David Blumenthal (collectively, Gursey). [1] Plaintiff alleged that Gursey committed professional negligence in providing her with forensic accounting services in connection with marital dissolution proceedings with her husband Danny Federici, a longtime keyboardist for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The trial court found plaintiff's professional negligence action was barred by her failure to assert that claim in a prior arbitration that Gursey had successfully brought against her to recover unpaid fees. We affirm. As explained below, an unambiguous provision in Gursey's retainer agreement required, as a prerequisite to any future malpractice action, that plaintiff raise existing professional negligence claims as an affirmative defense in any fee-related arbitration with Gursey. Under the retainer agreement, the issue of professional negligence was to be litigated initially through arbitration, so that any such damages would be offset against Gursey's fees—and only if that remedy failed to compensate…