Plaintiff must establish elements of proximate cause

In Verdi v Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, 154 AD3d 901 [2d Dept 2017], the court held:

“ To establish a cause of action to recover damages for legal malpractice, a plaintiff must establish the elements of proximate cause and damages, i.e. “ a plaintiff must show that but for the attorney’s negligence, he or she would have prevailed on the underlying claim ” (Rau v. Borenkoff, 262 A.D.2d 388, 389, 691 N.Y.S.2d 140; see Di Giacomo v. Michael S. Langella, P.C., 119 A.D.3d 636, 638, 990 N.Y.S.2d 221), by proving “ a case within a case ” (McKenna v. Forsyth & Forsyth, 280 A.D.2d 79, 82, 720 N.Y.S.2d 654 [internal quotation marks omitted] ). ”