Judiciary Law 487, which is “not lightly” applied to attorneys resulted in a finite set of cases during 2015.  Over the next month we will review all of the cases, and try to determine the trends.  Today, we look at  Armstrong v Blank Rome LLP;  2015 NY Slip Op 01755 [126 AD3d 427]
Decided on March 3, 2015 Appellate Division, First Department.

Although the AD decision does not state the acts of deceit, a review of Supreme Court’s decision and order  indicates that Blank Rome was representing Morgan Stanley in “lucrative transactional representation in Pennsylvania.”  Her husband was “so exalted at Goldman Sachs and that his interests and his company’s were so intertwined” that Blank Rome “threw her under the bus.”  She claims that Blank Rome advised her to give up her share of the marital asset valued at $ 16,167,000.  Wow!

The AD affirmed Supreme Court’s denial of the motion to dismiss.  “The complaint states a claim for violation of Judiciary Law § 487 with sufficient particularity (see Flycell, Inc. v Schlossberg LLC, __ F Supp 2d __, 2011 WL 5130159, *5, 2011 US Dist LEXIS 126024 [SDNY 2011]; Greene v Greene, 47 NY2d 447, 451 [1979]). Specifically, the complaint alleges that defendants concealed a conflict of interest that stemmed from defendant law firm’s attorney-client relationship with Morgan Stanley while simultaneously representing plaintiff in divorce proceedings against her ex-husband, a senior Morgan Stanley executive, who participated in Morgan Stanley’s decisions to hire outside counsel (see New York Rules of Professional Conduct [22 NYCRR 1200.0] rule 1.7[a]). Contrary to defendants’ argument, applying a liberal construction to the allegations in the complaint (see e.g. Leon v Martinez, 84 NY2d 83, 87-88 [1994]), plaintiff identifies the nature of the conflict as stemming from defendants’ interest in maintaining and encouraging its lucrative relationship with Morgan Stanley and the impact of that interest on defendants’ judgement in its representation of plaintiff in the divorce proceedings (see New York Rules of Professional Conduct [22 NYCRR 1200.0] rule 1.7[a]).

Further, the complaint alleges numerous acts of deceit by defendants, committed in the course of their representation of plaintiff in her matrimonial action. Additionally, the complaint sufficiently alleges that the individual defendants knew of but did not disclose defendant law firm’s representation of Morgan Stanley to plaintiff, and it details the calculations of her damages.”

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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.