Hudson v Hahn Kook Ctr. (USA), Inc.  2016 NY Slip Op 00882  Decided on February 9, 2016
Appellate Division, First Department presents us with an unusual setting for a Judiciary Law 487 claim.  This claim came up within the underlying case, and took place during the withdrawal of the attorney and his claim under Judiciary Law 475 for a charging lien.  Plaintiff countered that the attorney had “abandoned” it, and left it facing motions to dismiss for failures in discovery.  Was the law firm or the client responsible?  We don’t know, but the AD set up a hearing in Supreme Court.  However, it also set up a hearing on whether the law firm was deceitful in withdrawing.

“Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Debra A. James, J.), entered June 4, 2014, which denied nonparty appellant’s (Bernstone) motion to restore the action for the purpose of a hearing, pursuant to Judiciary Law § 475, to determine and fix the amount of its charging lien and, pursuant to Judiciary Law § 487, for treble damages from nonparty respondent (Ressler), unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion granted to the extent of remanding the matter for a hearing to determine whether Bernstone is entitled to enforce its charging lien, and, if so, the amount of the lien, and to determine whether Bernstone is entitled to treble damages.

The court erred in summarily denying Bernstone’s motion to determine and fix its charging lien on the ground that Bernstone had abandoned plaintiffs by seeking to withdraw as counsel at a time when there were pending motions to dismiss the complaint for failure to comply with discovery orders (see Klein v Eubank, 87 NY2d 459 [1996]; Uni-Rty Corp. v New York Guangdong Fin., Inc., 126 AD3d 429 [1st Dept 2015]). The record presents issues of fact as to whether Bernstone abandoned plaintiffs or plaintiffs’ own dilatory conduct in seeking new counsel was the sole cause of the dismissal. Plaintiffs signed consents to Bernstone’s withdrawal as counsel, and did not dispute Bernstone’s assertion that the withdrawal was necessitated by disagreements between them and counsel. At the time it sought to withdraw, Bernstone informed the court that there were motions pending, and, according to one of its attorneys at oral argument on February 26, 2013, also informed the court at that time, in an off-the-record exchange, that [*2]these motions were unopposed. Moreover, at the time it withdrew, Bernstone sought and received a stay on plaintiffs’ behalf to give them time to retain new counsel. However, approximately 3½ months after Bernstone was relieved, despite having received three adjournments of the motions, plaintiffs appeared in court without counsel, and the court granted the still unopposed motions.”

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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.