As reported in PR Leap, this is a settlement in a rather large buyout legal malpractice case. This report was by <a href="mailto:alan@legalpr.com “>Alan Bentrup of Androvett Legal Media.

Former ProTrader Owners Settle Legal Malpractice Lawsuit

(PRLEAP.COM) AUSTIN — Four former owners of an Austin-based electronic trading and software development company have settled their legal malpractice lawsuit against the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, LLP, over legal advice provided during the buyout of a former partner. The former owners were represented by Daniel W. Bishop and Joseph F. Brophy of Bishop London Brophy Dodds, P.C.

Andy Kershner, David Burch, David Jamail and John McEntire were the former owners of ProTrader Group LP. In 1999, the group began looking for a buyer for the company. Unable to locate a buyer by March 2000, former ProTrader executive Russell Grigsby asked the owners to buy out his interest in the company.

In May 2000, Mr. Grigsby agreed to a buyout worth approximately $12 million for his minority interest, signing a binding letter of intent prepared by Vinson & Elkins. During the period after Grigsby’s departure, ProTrader made significant investments in its people and technology in an effort to attract a Wall Street partner. This was accomplished with the sale of the company to New York-based Instinet Group Inc. (NASDAQ: INGP) in October 2001. After the sale of ProTrader, Mr. Grigsby filed suit against the former owners, seeking a piece of the $150 million sale price.

Firmly believing themselves and relying on advice from Vinson & Elkins that Mr. Grigsby had no claim to money from the sale, the former owners declined to honor his demands. An arbitration panel later disagreed, awarding Mr. Grigsby $43 million.

After the arbitration ruling, the former owners filed a legal malpractice suit against Vinson & Elkins. The case was sent to mediation, and was settled for an undisclosed amount in August 2005.

“We firmly believed, based on our lawyers’ advice and the signed buyout contract, that Russell Grigsby had no stake to the proceeds from the sale of ProTrader,” says Andy Kershner, former ProTrader owner and currently the chairman of Zone Trading Partners, LLC, an Austin-based securities trading company. “We’re glad this settlement has resolved this dispute, and we’re anxious to move forward

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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.

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