Legal malpractice is ubiquitous and might be expected at any attorney-client interface.  What is not expected, nor routine is the big loss of escrow funds.  News cycles have more and more reported on "rogue" traders/professionals.  Here is a big one in the law world from the NY Law Journal:

Client Sues Crowell Over Missing Escrow
 

"Crowell & Moring was sued Friday for $5.5 million in missing real estate escrow money that a client says was improperly diverted by former firm associate Douglas R. Arntsen (See Complaint).

Attorney Bruce H. Lederman, representing Regal Real Estate and related entities, sued Crowell & Moring ten days after reporting Mr. Arntsen to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. According to published accounts, Mr. Arnsten was in custody in Hong Kong after fleeing to avoid arrest. The reports could not be confirmed.

"My client has a big problem—this is unbelievable," Mr. Lederman, of D’Agostino, Levine, Landesman & Lederman said in an interview. "I feel like I’ve been living a bad episode of Law & Order since last Tuesday."

Mr. Arntsen’s picture has been taken down from Crowell & Moring’s website. The lawsuit accuses the firm of negligence and breach of contract for failing to prevent the improper diversion of funds by Mr. Arntsen. The funds came from deposits for sales of real estate in lower Manhattan and a condemnation award for a property on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan.

The lawsuit states that Crowell & Moring partner William O’Connor came to the firm in 2007, bringing Mr. Arntsen and Regal’s business with him, from Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney. It states that Mr. O’Connor was responsible for supervising the work of Mr. Arntsen, who was with the firm until Sept. 9. The suit said the firm failed "to maintain adequate checks and controls over escrow accounts" to prevent the diversion of money.

Mr. Lederman said that the suit, Regal Real Estate, LLC. v. Crowell & Morning, was filed by Mr. Lederman after the law firm failed to meet a 3 p.m. Friday deadline for returning the money. With interest and the costs of the investigation, Regal is seeking $6 million, plus an award of attorney’s fees.

Crowell & Moring declined to comment"
 

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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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