After Failed Takeover, Can Corporation Sue Lawyer Who Represented Unsuccessful Dissidents for Malpractice?

Case Questions Whether Corporate Attorney-Client Relationship Existed

New Destiny Treatment Center, Inc., et al. v. E. Marie Wheeler et al., Case no. 2010-0298

9th District Court of Appeals (Summit County)

ISSUE: When a group of dissident trustees of a nonprofit corporation retain the services of an attorney to help them in an attempt to unseat the organization's current leadership and establish a new corporate board, if the dissident faction assumes temporary control of corporate assets and operations, even though the dissidents' purported takeover is later voided by a court as a legal nullity, do the actions of the dissidents' attorney during the takeover attempt establish an attorney-client relationship with the corporation sufficient to support a subsequent malpractice lawsuit by the corporation against the dissidents' attorney?