We have long observed that legal malpractice defendants, who must act according to rules devised by attorneys, and are judged by attorneys, enjoy a greater latitude in professional malpractice litigation than, say, doctors, accountants and other professionals. Though essentially anecdotal, the evidence is compelling. That said, Bei Yang v Pagan Law Firm, P.C.
2022 NY
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 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.
A Simple Proposition
Can an associate attorney be sued personally, along with the law firm? FTF Lending, LLC v Mavrides, Moyal, Packman & Sadkin, LLP
2022 NY Slip Op 02946 [205 AD3d 414], May 3, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department gives a short lucid answer.
“Defendants do not dispute that the complaint, which asserts a cause of action…
https://blog.bluestonelawfirm.com/2022/08/uncategorized/7600/
Genesis REOC Co., LLC v Poppel 2022 NY Slip Op 02947 [205 AD3d 415] May 3, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department is the unusual case in which the Appellate Division reads the complaint in a legal malpractice case without unduly constricting the claims. Here, it finds that the complaint and the affidavit show privity, proximity…
Even If Deceitful, Not Enough
AmTrust N. Am., Inc. v Pavloff 2022 NY Slip Op 02862 (204 AD3d 599] April 28, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department demonstrates the high bar to a Judiciary Law §487 claim. Deceit is not enough. It must be “egregious.”
“The amended complaint states a cause of action for legal malpractice and the documents submitted do…
https://blog.bluestonelawfirm.com/2022/08/uncategorized/7596/
Markov v Barrows 2022 NY Slip Op 04780 Decided on August 02, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department could be a law school lesson on the meaning of the “but for” causation required in legal malpractice cases.
“Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Margaret A. Chan, J.), entered April 21, 2020, which, to the extent appealed…
Sign the Stipulation and Reap the Results
Spiegel v Hawco 2022 NY Slip Op 32431(U) July 21, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 159930/2015 Judge: Shlomo Hagler is a legal malpractice case arising from a landlord-tenant matter which went awry after plaintiff agreed to be bought out of a rent-controlled apartment lease on West Grove Street. Plaintiff loses,…
No Workers’ Compensation, No Legal Malpractice
In Provenzano v Cellino & Barnes, P.C. 2022 NY Slip Op 04749 Decided on July 27, 2022 Appellate Division, Second Department we see an illustration of the “no harm-no foul” spirit of legal malpractice. Sure, an attorney may make a mistake, depart from good practice or fail to explore an avenue of recovery, but if…
An Offer, then Not an Offer
Pruss v AmTrust N. Am. Inc. 2022 NY Slip Op 02884 [204 AD3d 620] April 28, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department seems to be the story of a settlement offer made in good faith, where the offeror only found out later that its principal lacked the authority to make the offer in the first place. …
Already Decided Once and Patently Devoid of Merit
In this odd case, Feng Li v Shih 2022 NY Slip Op 04293 Decided on July 6, 2022 Appellate Division, Second Department Plaintiff is an attorney who was disbarred in New Jersey and suspended in New York. He turns around and sues another attorney claiming that the proceedings in New Jersey were malicious, an abuse…
Documents Kill the Legal Malpractice Case
Frydco Capital Group, LLC v Carlton Fields, P.A. 2022 NY Slip Op 02619 [204 AD3d 532] April 21, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department is a picture of two wholly different stories. Plaintiff’s story survived a motion to dismiss, only to be vanquished by Defendants’ story on appeal.
“The legal malpractice claims should have been dismissed…