Legal malpractice cases are dismissed at a statistically higher rate in legal malpractice cases than in other tort or contract cases.  We believe that the reason is institutional.  Subconsciously, attorney-judges give greater scrutiny to legal malpractice claims than they do to other claims, and because of this, attorneys are granted a higher bar to suit.

In Menkes v Solomon & Cramer LLP  2022 NY Slip Op 01740 Decided on March 15, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department resolved an attorney v. attorney legal malpractice case against Plaintiff.  “Plaintiff’s legal malpractice claim was correctly dismissed in accordance with CPLR 3211(a)(7) for failure to state a cause of action. Even accepting plaintiff’s allegations as true, the complaint contains only conclusory allegations that any negligence by defendants in not raising an affirmative claim for interest in a fee dispute between plaintiff and two attorneys was the “but for” cause of plaintiff’s alleged damages (AmBase Corp. v Davis Polk & Wardwell, 8 NY3d 428, 434 [2007]; Nomura Asset Capital Corp. v Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, 26 NY3d 40, 50 [2015]). Plaintiff’s contention that the motion court in the fee dispute would have awarded her predecision interest pursuant to CPLR 5001 is at best speculative (see Rudolf v Shayne, Dachs, Stanisci, Corker & Sauer, 8 NY3d 438, 442, 443 [2007]; see also Manufacturer’s & Traders Trust Co. v Reliance Ins. Co., 8 NY3d 583, 589-590 [2007]).

Nor does the fact that defendants signed a stipulation on plaintiff’s behalf, releasing the holder of the escrow account from liability, constitute malpractice. Plaintiff, an experienced personal injury attorney, executed an affirmation in which she agreed to most of the terms proffered by the escrow counsel, one of which released him from any liability once the amounts in the account were distributed. As a result, defendants’ execution of a stipulation containing largely the same language was consistent with plaintiff’s express representations and not the “but for” cause of any alleged loss. “

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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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