The court in Judd Burstein, P.C. v Long, 797 Fed Appx 585, 587-88 [2d Cir 2019] recited the law regarding certain damages in the context of a breach of contract action against an attorney: Under New York law, it is well established that where “[a]ttorney’s services” are “the substance of the action alleging a breach of the retainer agreement,” such as here, “the costs of obtaining substituted services [are] … consequential damages.” Hinman, Straub, Pigors & Manning, P.C. v. Broder, 89 A.D.2d 278, 456 N.Y.S.2d 834, 836 (1982); accord *588 Affiliated Credit Adjustors, Inc. v. Carlucci & Legum, 139 A.D.2d 611, 527 N.Y.S.2d 426, 428 (1988) (stating, in the context of an action for legal malpractice, that legal fees “allegedly incurred in retaining alternate counsel to perform the services for which the defendants were originally retained … [are] not merely an incident of litigation but, instead, constitute[ ] consequential damages which may be recoverable”). Such damages “may include litigation expenses incurred in an attempt to avoid, minimize, or reduce the damage caused by the attorney’s wrongful conduct.” Rudolf v. Shayne, Dachs, Stanisci, Corker & Sauer, 8 N.Y.3d 438, 443, 835 N.Y.S.2d 534, 867 N.E.2d 385 (2007) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).
