We believe that a higher percentage of legal malpractice cases suffer dismissal, either at the answer or at summary judgment than do other forms of litigation in negligence.  Admittedly, we have but anecdotal evidence.  Nevertheless, Facie Libre Assoc. I, L.L.C. v Littman Krooks, L.L.P.
2015 NY Slip Op 01389  Decided on February 17, 2015  Appellate Division, First Department is a prime example of an institutional bias towards the attorney over the client in dismissals.

"Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Joan M. Kenney, J.), entered September 11, 2013, which granted defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint, unanimously modified, on the law, to deny the motion as to the legal malpractice cause of action, and otherwise affirmed, without costs.

The legal malpractice cause of action should not be dismissed because it cannot be concluded as a matter of law from the allegations in the complaint that defendant had no duty to monitor the transaction at issue for plaintiffs, including requesting copies of and ascertaining the status of documents required by the issuer for the stock sale to go forward (see Katz v Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, 19 Misc 3d 1121(A), 2008 NY Slip Op 50796[U] [Sup Ct, NY County 2008]). In particular, plaintiffs allege that there were indications that the legal opinion necessary for the transaction had not been sent to the issuer and that those indications should have triggered an inquiry by defendant (see Nomura Asset Capital Corp. v Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, 115 AD3d 228, 240-241 [1st Dept 2014]). The complaint adequately alleges that but for defendant’s failure to make inquiry as to the status of the legal opinion, the opinion would have been delivered by the seller (see Rudolf v Shayne, Dachs, Stanisci, Corker & Sauer, 8 NY3d 438, 442 [2007]). Plaintiffs’ claim for lost profits is not barred by the settlement with the seller for the return of the purchase price since no election of remedies against defendant is involved (see Rennie v Pierce Cards, 65 AD2d 527, 528 [1st Dept 1978])."

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Andrew Lavoott Bluestone

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened…

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened his private law office and took his first legal malpractice case.

Since 1989, Bluestone has become a leader in the New York Plaintiff’s Legal Malpractice bar, handling a wide array of plaintiff’s legal malpractice cases arising from catastrophic personal injury, contracts, patents, commercial litigation, securities, matrimonial and custody issues, medical malpractice, insurance, product liability, real estate, landlord-tenant, foreclosures and has defended attorneys in a limited number of legal malpractice cases.

Bluestone also took an academic role in field, publishing the New York Attorney Malpractice Report from 2002-2004.  He started the “New York Attorney Malpractice Blog” in 2004, where he has published more than 4500 entries.

Mr. Bluestone has written 38 scholarly peer-reviewed articles concerning legal malpractice, many in the Outside Counsel column of the New York Law Journal. He has appeared as an Expert witness in multiple legal malpractice litigations.

Mr. Bluestone is an adjunct professor of law at St. John’s University College of Law, teaching Legal Malpractice.  Mr. Bluestone has argued legal malpractice cases in the Second Circuit, in the New York State Court of Appeals, each of the four New York Appellate Divisions, in all four of  the U.S. District Courts of New York and in Supreme Courts all over the state.  He has also been admitted pro haec vice in the states of Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida and was formally admitted to the US District Court of Connecticut and to its Bankruptcy Court all for legal malpractice matters. He has been retained by U.S. Trustees in legal malpractice cases from Bankruptcy Courts, and has represented municipalities, insurance companies, hedge funds, communications companies and international manufacturing firms. Mr. Bluestone regularly lectures in CLEs on legal malpractice.

Based upon his professional experience Bluestone was named a Diplomate and was Board Certified by the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys in 2008 in Legal Malpractice. He remains Board Certified.  He was admitted to The Best Lawyers in America from 2012-2019.  He has been featured in Who’s Who in Law since 1993.

In the last years, Mr. Bluestone has been featured for two particularly noteworthy legal malpractice cases.  The first was a settlement of an $11.9 million dollar default legal malpractice case of Yeo v. Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman which was reported in the NYLJ on August 15, 2016. Most recently, Mr. Bluestone obtained a rare plaintiff’s verdict in a legal malpractice case on behalf of the City of White Plains v. Joseph Maria, reported in the NYLJ on February 14, 2017. It was the sole legal malpractice jury verdict in the State of New York for 2017.

Bluestone has been at the forefront of the development of legal malpractice principles and has contributed case law decisions, writing and lecturing which have been recognized by his peers.  He is regularly mentioned in academic writing, and his past cases are often cited in current legal malpractice decisions. He is recognized for his ample writings on Judiciary Law § 487, a 850 year old statute deriving from England which relates to attorney deceit.