Attorneys care about their clients.  Attorneys work hard and have reasons to perform good work.  Attorneys make mistakes, and have high case loads.  Attorneys have their own interests at heart. 

These are contradictory thoughts that cannot be reconciled.  Here, in the story of Richard F. Gluszak we see some of the contradictory story-lines.  "The Grievance Committee received a complaint from the Honorable Ira Warshawsky of the Supreme Court, Nassau County involving a default judgment taken against the respondent based upon his failure to answer a summons and complaint in the matter entitled Quarta v Gluszak, commenced in the Supreme Court, Nassau County, under Index No. 4427/08. The action alleged that the respondent diverted money from a client via a business credit link and that he failed to produce certain documents as mandated by a order of the Supreme Court, Nassau County, dated June 11, 2008. The complaint was based on a order of the Supreme Court, Nassau County, dated April 9, 2009, which found that the plaintiffs were entitled to judgment on their causes of action for professional malpractice and diversion of funds."

"The Grievance Committee received a complaint from Richard Ferris, dated May 27, 2009, alleging that the respondent claimed to be unable to return proceeds from a house sale he had deposited into his IOLA account. By letter dated June 19, 2009, sent to the address the respondent had listed with OCA, the Grievance Committee requested a copy of the respondent’s answer within 10 days and advised that an unexcused failure to reply constituted professional misconduct independent of the merits."

"The Grievance Committee received a complaint from Patricia Hodelin, dated December 18, 2009, alleging that the respondent misappropriated funds held in escrow for her and her late husband, and that he misappropriated funds entrusted to him by the Estate of Vernon Hodelin. "

"Although personally served with both the petition and the order to show cause on July 29, 2010, the respondent has failed to interpose any reply."

 

 

Print:
Email this postTweet this postLike this postShare this post on LinkedIn
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.