We’re not exactly sure what type of fraud took place here.  It seems to be centered around a merger and a voting agreement that injured the Learning Annex in Learning Annex, L.P. v Blank Rome LLP  2013 NY Slip Op 03921  Decided on May 30, 2013   Appellate Division, First Department 
Blank Rome seems to have represented the "fraudsters."  Beyond that, we can’t say.  However, as always, privity is king, and seems to be the most important qualification for legal malpractice.  Sure, collusion, fraud, malice and other events can give rise to non-privity legal malpractice, but its very very rare.

"Plaintiff failed to state a cause of action for aiding and abetting fraud against defendant law firm and the individual defendant, plaintiff’s former attorney. The alleged conduct, defendants’ failure to disclose a voting agreement entered into between non-parties at a time when defendants did not represent plaintiff and to subsequently highlight the voting agreement’s existence, does not constitute "substantial assistance" in the
commission of the alleged underlying fraud (see Stanfield Offshore Leveraged Assets, Ltd. v Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 64 AD3d 472, 476 [1st Dept 2009], lv denied 13 NY3d 709 [2009]; Liquidation of Union Indem. Ins. Co. of New York v Spira, 289 AD2d 173 [1st Dept 2001], lv dismissed 98 NY2d 672 [2002]). The claim that defendants provided routine legal services to the alleged fraudsters is likewise insufficient to establish a claim for aiding and abetting fraud (see CRT Investments, Ltd. v BDO Seidman, LLP, 85 AD3d 470, 472 [1st Dept 2011][citing Ulico Cas. Co. v Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker, 56 AD3d 1 [1st Dept 2008]).

The amended complaint does not allege a claim for legal malpractice in connection with defendants’ representation of the alleged fraudsters in a merger transaction. Even if such a claim were alleged, it would fail to state a cause of action in the absence of an attorney-client relationship (see Federal Ins. Co. v North Am. Specialty Ins. Co., 47 AD3d 52 [1st Dept 2007]; Linden v Moskowitz, 294 AD2d 114, 115 [1st Dept 2002], lv denied 99 NY2d 505 [2003]) or a relationship approaching privity or other special circumstance (see Good Old Days Tavern, Inc. v Zwirn, 259 AD2d 300 [1st Dept 1999]). The legal malpractice claim arising out of a subsequent transaction fails as speculation as to what plaintiff would have done, had it been aware of the [*2]voting agreement, and the possibility that another party may pursue a claim against plaintiff in the future, does not support a claim for causally related damages (see Brooks v Lewin, 21 AD3d 731 [1st Dept 2005], lv denied 6 NY3d 713 [2006]). "

 

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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.