Small-Firm Drafting Errors and Malpractice Claims: The Clauses That Fail and the File That Answers Them

Robert Tobey, Shareholder | Johnston Tobey Baruch

Robert Tobey is a Shareholder at Johnston Tobey Baruch in Dallas, where he litigates legal malpractice and professional malpractice matters alongside commercial litigation, business disputes, and investment fraud cases, carrying them through trial, arbitration, and settlement. Best Lawyers has named him Lawyer of the Year in Legal Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs for Dallas/Fort Worth, and his speaking topics include malpractice avoidance and grievance defense and ethical fee agreements. He served as the 2020 President of the Dallas Bar Association.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Tobey earned his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1980 and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, after undergraduate coursework as a finance major at Southern Methodist University. He is Board Certified in Consumer and Commercial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell and a 10.0 rating from Avvo.

• Recognition & Leadership

Best Lawyers has recognized Mr. Tobey as Lawyer of the Year in Legal Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs for Dallas/Fort Worth and has listed him in The Best Lawyers in America annually since 2013. He was inducted into the Lawdragon Hall of Fame in 2026 and appears among the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America. He has been named to Texas Super Lawyers from 2003 through 2026 and to D Magazine’s Best Lawyers in Dallas from 2013 through 2025.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Tobey served as the 2020 President of the Dallas Bar Association and as an elected Director on the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors. He was a council member of the National Conference of Bar Presidents from 2021 to 2024, serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Dallas Bar Foundation, and sits on the boards of the State Bar College and Legal Aid of Northwest Texas. He also chairs the Advisory Board of the Greater Dallas Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

• Experience

Mr. Tobey’s practice centers on legal malpractice and professional malpractice litigation, and he speaks regularly on malpractice avoidance and grievance defense and on ethical fee agreements. His broader trial and arbitration practice covers commercial litigation, business disputes, and investment fraud, and his speaking topics extend to negotiation strategies, the Anti-SLAPP statute, and partnership dissolution warning signs.

Carrie Phaneuf, Vice-president | Texas Lawyers Insurance

Carrie Phaneuf is the Vice President of Loss Prevention of Texas Lawyers Insurance (TLI), an insurance company based in Austin, Texas that provides legal malpractice insurance to over 7000 lawyers and judges in Texas. In her role at TLI, she provides loss prevention, risk management and best practices guidance to TLI insureds; develops numerous resources for TLI insureds to help them be successful in their practice such as a robust forms library with over 45 forms; develops and presents CLE to TLI insureds, bar association groups, and law school groups; and writes a weekly blog on legal malpractice, ethics, and loss prevention issues.

• Education & Credentials

Carrie received a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, with honors, and graduated from the SMU Dedman School of Law in 1998, Cum Laude and Order of the Coif. She is a life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and a member of the Texas Bar College.

• Recognition & Leadership

Carrie twice has been recognized as one of the top 50 women attorneys in Texas by Thomson Reuters in 2019 and 2020. She was also named to “D” Magazine Best Lawyers in Dallas in 2014, 2016-2024; Texas Super Lawyers by Thomson Reuters, 2013-2024; and “The Best Lawyers in America” by BL Rankings in Professional Malpractice Law-Defendants, 2021-2024. Carrie was also formerly on the TLI Board of Directors from 2008-2024.

• Professional Involvement

She is also a member of the Austin Bar Association and the Dallas Bar Association. Her recent CLE presentations include “AI Best Practices: What Every Lawyer Should Know,” presented for the Houston Bar Association in July 2026, and her weekly TLI blog addresses legal malpractice, ethics, and loss prevention issues for Texas practitioners.

• Experience

Prior to joining TLI in July 2024, she was a member of the Dallas law firm Cobb Martinez Woodward PLLC, where she practiced law for 16 years. Carrie also practiced law with the Dallas law firm Cowles & Thompson from 1998 to 2008. In private practice, Carrie represented Texas attorneys in professional liability and disciplinary matters. She also provided risk management advice to her clients.

Kristie Prinz, AI and Tech Business Lawyer of Loss Prevention | The Prinz Law Office

Kristie Prinz is a software, AI, tech, digital health, and IP business lawyer in Silicon Valley, who has been providing technical business advice to early-stage start-ups and mid-market companies for 28 years.

• Education & Credentials

Kristie graduated from Furman University and Vanderbilt Law School and is licensed to practice law in the states of California and Georgia.

• Recognition & Leadership

Kristie founded the Silicon Valley Software Advisors Group, which is a national networking group of business advisors who focus on the software and SaaS industries, as well as the AI Advisors Group, which is a national thought leadership group of business advisors who advise AI companies and/or work in providing AI-related services to businesses. Additionally, she leads the Silicon Valley Virtual I home group in ProVisors, which is a national networking and referral group of more than 11,000 professionals. She was selected as a Super Lawyer in Northern California in 2024 and 2025.

• Professional Involvement

Kristie is a frequent speaker and media contributor on software, AI, tech, digital health, and IP law issues. She is the author of “Managing the Legal Risks of Artificial Intelligence on Intellectual Property and Confidential Information” which was published by the Consulting Psychology Journal in 2025. She is also the author of the Silicon Valley Software Law Blog and the Silicon Valley Digital Health Blog. Her recent programs include the June 2026 webinar “Advising Businesses on AI Agent Risk.” She is also a member of the Business Section of the American Bar Association, the Business and Privacy Sections of the California Bar Association, and the Privacy and Technology Section of the Georgia Bar Association.

• Experience

Kristie’s clients are primarily in the software-as-a-service (“SaaS”), AI, technology, and digital health industries. Kristie generally advises them on business transactions and legal issues involving customers, resellers, suppliers & distributors, business partners, and buyers/sellers. Kristie not only works with companies in Silicon Valley as well as other parts of California, but also in developing technology hubs across the U.S. and in overseas markets such as Canada, Mexico, Central America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. She is the founder of The Prinz Law Office, headquartered in San Jose with offices in Palo Alto, Irvine, and San Diego. Before founding the firm, she practiced with Pennie & Edmonds, LLP in Palo Alto and Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, LLP in Atlanta, Georgia.

Stacia Hofmann, Founder | Cornerpoint Law

Stacia Hofmann is a solo practitioner and an associate in risk management (ARM). Her practice focuses on drafting business and employment agreements and helping clients identify and manage contractual and operational risk. She also advises on business ownership matters and exits. Stacia founded Cornerpoint Law, with locations in Seattle and Boise, in 2015 after a decade in litigation.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Hofmann earned her J.D. from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco in 2005 and a B.A. in Communication, magna cum laude, from the University of Southern California in 2002. She holds the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designation from The Institutes, earned in 2015, and completed The Institutes’ Cyber Risk Management certification in 2016. She is licensed in the state courts of Washington and Idaho.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Hofmann has been selected to the Washington Super Lawyers list in Business/Corporate Law from 2022 through 2026, following Rising Star selections in 2010 and from 2016 through 2020. She has been featured in Washington Super Lawyers Magazine and in Bar News Magazine, the official publication of the Washington State Bar Association, where she co-authored the March 2022 column “Motivation, Mentorship, & Managing Your Time.”

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Hofmann presents workshops on written contracts and contract clarity for business owners, including a September 2025 “Cut the Fluff” workshop for Forum Consortium on contract clarity and risk management, a February 2025 contract drafting workshop at Collective Chemistry covering scope of work, payment terms, work product ownership, and termination provisions, and the April 2019 seminar “When Handshakes Are Not Enough: The Why, What, & How of Written Customer Contracts” for the Women Business Owners Mentor Monday series. She has served as a volunteer arbitrator for the King County and Snohomish County Superior Courts, on the nonprofit boards of Women Business Owners and Greater Seattle Insurance Professionals (where she was Secretary in 2017–2018), and co-taught a Torts course to paralegal students at Edmonds Community College in 2018. She is a member of Mensa International.

• Experience

Since founding Cornerpoint Law in 2015, Ms. Hofmann has concentrated on drafting and revising business, employee, and customer agreements, with an emphasis on contract drafting, negotiation, and risk mitigation, and on LLC disputes, exits, and employment contracts. That practice follows ten years as a commercial and insurance defense litigator, from 2005 to 2015, including service as a trial attorney for Nationwide Insurance defending hundreds of cases. She has presented insurance continuing education on reservation of rights letters and examinations under oath and has been quoted in The Seattle Times on indemnity agreements, risk management, and liability.

SESSION 1 – Catching Drafting Errors in a Firm Without a Second Reviewer | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session examines why solo and small-firm attorneys bear a disproportionate share of legal malpractice claims tied to drafting errors, and what structured systems can replace the peer-review function they typically lack. Attorneys will learn to identify the specific clause-level failures — omissions, internal contradictions, vague terms, and template recycling artifacts — that generate the highest claim volume. They will leave with practical self-review protocols and a framework for evaluating AI-assisted review tools as a partial second-reviewer substitute, including the ethical and malpractice risks of deploying those tools without adequate oversight.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Documenting Client Intent and Handling the Error You Discover Yourself | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session covers the two disciplines that determine whether a small-firm attorney survives a malpractice claim: building a file that memorializes client intent at every stage of a matter and executing the legally and ethically correct response when the attorney discovers an error. Attendees will learn the specific contents engagement letters, confirmation-of-direction memos, and closing files must contain to serve as a defense; the ABA Opinion 481 framework for disclosing self-discovered errors; conflict-of-interest obligations triggered by an error; and the carrier-reporting sequence that preserves coverage. Attorneys leave with a practical checklist for documentation and a step-by-step protocol for handling errors without admitting liability or losing insurance coverage.