Was this merely bad luck or worse.  In either event. plaintiffs lack standing to bring this action. In Schoolman v McAuliffe 2020 NY Slip Op 34228(U) December 21, 2020 Supreme Court, Suffolk County Docket Number: 4311/2019 Judge: Sanford Neil Berland we see:

“This action arises out of three petitions initially brought under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code by. respectively. by 1 lampton Transportation Ventures. Inc. (HTV). Schoolman Transportation System, Inc. (STS) and 1600 Locust Avenue Associates, LLC ( 1600) (collectively, the debtor (Companies). which subsequently were converted to a consolidated Chapter 7 Bankruptcy proceeding and led to the liquidation of the three companies. Plaintiff was the founder. president and CEO of the debtor companies, and defendant, an attorney. represented the debtor corporations in the bankruptcy proceedings. Plaintiff commenced this action by filing a summons with notice on August 16, 2019, and served the complaint on defendant upon demand on October 6, 2019. Plaintiff seeks to allege claims against the defendant for breach of fiduciary duty, legal malpractice. fraud and honest services fraud arising
from his representation of the debtor companies in the bankruptcy proceedings. ”

“ln substance. the complaint alleges as follows: The debtor companies started suffering financial reversals in 2008. In 2014. they were forced by a hedge fund that had purchased the companies’ debt to hire a consultant. The consultant forced the companies into hard money
loans to the companies’ detriment, while enriching the consultant. Defendant learned of this from an SBA Joan underwriter who was working with plaintiff and whose office was in the same building as defendant’s office. Defendant told the underwriter that the plaintiff was the victim or “lender liability” and that he could help plaintiff with that and with Chapter 11. Plaintiff met with defendant and another lawyer who was introduced to him as an associate of defendant, and
it was represented to plaintiff that defendant and the associate would file a lender liability lawsuit while the debtors were in Chapter 11. They further represented that they were well versed in bankruptcy proceedings and would go “all-out” for their clients. Defendant never
brought the lender liability lawsuit. did not prepare a reorganization plan or take the steps to facilitate a possible purchase of the debtor companies’ assets pursuant to Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code (a “363 sale”) or follow up on interest expressed by other bus companies in purchasing plaintiffs companies. Defendant filed only a tepid response to the motion for the appointment of a Chapter I I trustee. who he alleges. was corrupt. The Trustee imposed a purportedly unnecessary 10% non-refundable deposit on a $5.5 million 363 offer, which proved prohibitive to the prospective 363 purchasers. The 363 sale never came to fruition, and the debtor companies were, consequently. forced to liquidate. Plaintiff alleges that the defendant
deliberately timed the bringing of an order to show cause, aimed at preventing the debtor companies from being shut down, so that the bankruptcy judge would not be able to see the papers until two days after the debtor companies were, in fact, shut down. Further, according to plaintiff. in the order to show cause, defendant stated that he was only making the motion because his client asked him to. Defendant failed to bring to the court’s attention various infractions by the trustee. Although defendant’s associate was supposed to represent the debtor companies, he was not approved to do so under bankruptcy court’s rules, so his involvement had to remain secret. Defendant basically did nothing, plaintiff alleges. to advocate zealously on behalf of the debtor companies. ”

“‘Upon the filing of a voluntary bankruptcy petition. all property which a debtor owns, including a cause of action, vests in the bankruptcy estate,”‘(Burbacki v. Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman, Formato, Ferrara & Wolf, LLP, 172 AD3d 1300, l 300. 99 NYS3d 671
[2d Dept 2019), t/UOting Keegan v. Moriarty-Morris, 153 AD3d 683, 684 (2d Dept 2017), citing
11 USC § 541 [a][IJ; In re Oshome, 2013 WL 113177662, *2, 2013 US Dist LEXIS 190402,
*5-6 {SDNY 2013)). Therefore, a plaintiff may not maintain a legal malpractice cause of action
in his or her individual capacity relating to a bankruptcy. The right to sue is only exercisable by
the trustee in bankruptcy. whether the claim asserted in the complaint accrued prior to the filing of the bankruptcy petition. or post-petition (see 11 USC § 541 [a][ I): Burbacki v. Abrams,
Fensterman, Eiseman, Formato, Ferrara & Wolf, LLP, supra 172 AD3d at 1300.
citing Williams v. Stein, 6 AD3d 197, 775 I Jn re Alvarez, 224 F3d 1273. 1275-1278
[ 11th Cir 2000)). Therefore, to the extent that plaintiff asserts claims for legal malpractice in
connection with defendant’s representation of the three companies, plaintiff lacks the capacity to sue as a matter of bankruptcy law.”

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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.