When does continuous representation end?  Sometimes there is a specific event (a judgment, a verdict, a motion decision) and sometimes there is a specific event plus a specific period of time (the date of the injury + three years) and sometimes continuous representation ends when the parties believe it ends.  So it is in Hadda v Lissner & Lissner LLP ; 2011 NY Slip Op 32519(U)
September 19, 2011; Sup Ct, NY County; Docket Number: 109329/10; Judge: Emily Jane Goodman.

"The continuous legal representation doctrine recognizes that the statute of limitations for  ommencing a malpractice action may be tolled, if the continuing representation "pertains specifically to the matter in which the attorney committed the alleged malpractice." Shumsky, 96 NY2d at 168. In other words, the doctrine permits the tolling of the statute of limitations "until
the ongoing representation is completed." Id. at 167-168. The plaintiff bears the burden to prove that the doctrine applies. See Corless v Mazza, 295 AD2d 848 (3d Dept 2002). The doctrine
requires a clear indicia of an ongoing, continuous, developing and personal relationship between the attorney and client or a mutual understanding of the need for further representation on
the specific subject matter underlying the malpractice claim.  See Matter of Merker, 18 AD3d 332 (1st Dept: 2 0 0 5 ) ."

"Defendants have not demonstrated, by conclusive documentary evidence, when the legal  alpractice action accrued (i.e, defendants rely on April 2006 as the date, which was when the
firm participated in a conference call, but did not bill for the work)’ and have not demonstrated that the continuous representation doctrine does not apply. Although it is true that the relationship may have ended prior to the time that plaintiffs’ terminated the relationship by l e t t e r , no conclusive
proof has been submitted regarding when the relationship ended.  Defendants note that the doctrine applies until the client is on notice that the attorney is no longer addressing their needs,
which need not be in the form of a motion to withdraw, but only needs to be reasonably sufficient to advise the client that the attorney w i l l no longer pursue the matter. However, contrary to defendants’ argument, that ”[pllaintiffs were surely on notice that the Law Firm w a s no longer addressing their legal needs” (Reply Affirm at 4), the affidavits of the husband of Ceri Hadda,
(who is himself an attorney), and Ceri herself, paint a different picture.  because he ‘is not a plaintiff in this action and his surname is not ‘Hadda”‘ and, because he was not party to the retainer (Id.at 16). While it is true that the doctrine depends upon the relationship between the attorney and the client (see Grlffen v Anslow, 17 AD3d 889 (3d Dept 2005) (retainer agreement and other documents conclusively established that the legal malpractice action should be dismissed because they indicated that the attorney-client relationship was not between plaintiff and
defendant, but was between plaintiff‘s corporations and defendant), nothing has been cited to support defendants’ contention that the client cannot act through her attorney husband. Here, apparently the f i r m itself recognized the husband’s authority to act on behalf of plaintiffs."

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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.