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.
Pre-Answer Dismissal of complaints is given outsized importance in legal malpractice litigation. Anecdotally, a higher percentage of legal malpractice cases are dismissed pre-answer than those in the general population of litigation cases. Zeppieri v Vinson 2021 NY Slip Op 00348
Decided on January 21, 2021 Appellate Division, Third Department describes how 3211(a)(1) is used.
“”A…
Law Off. of Mark S. Helweil v Karambelas 2021 NY Slip Op 00260 Decided on January 19, 2021 Appellate Division, First Department shows how courts place a very high premium on paying attorney bills. Basically put, if the attorney send a bill, a written, immediate and specific objection must be made. Faiure to do so…
Gramted. its a case from small claims court, and granted, it’s the Appellate Term, not the Appellate Division, but the rules recited in Law Offs. of Lydia C. Hills, P.C. v Holguin 2021 NY Slip Op 50032(U) [70 Misc 3d 135(A)] Decided on January 15, 2021 Appellate Term, Second Department remain true.
“Attorneys representing…
Personal injury claims that a person might have can become the property of the Bankruptcy estate. It is a tricky question depending on whether the bankruptcy case is in Chapter 7, 11 or 13. Pre-Petition claims are different from post-petition claims, yet they all came together in Horvath v Budin, Reisman, Kupferberg & Bernstein LLP…
It is an almost ironclad requirement that experts be used in legal malpractice settings, either to state the standard of ordinary rasonable skill and knowledge commonl possessed by an attorney. In Lieberman v Green 2021 NY Slip Op 00163 Decided on January 13, 2021 Appellate Division, Second Department the client (acting pro se) didn’t hava…
Both Collateral Estoppel and Res Judicata were applied to two different lawsuits each arising from a Bankruptcy Proceeding. Plaintiff loses all around in Bauhouse Group I, Inc. v Kalikow 2021 NY Slip Op 00001
Decided on January 05, 2021 Appellate Division, First Department.
“In the first order, the court correctly concluded that plaintiffs’ legal malpractice…
Law Firm of Alexander D. Tripp, P.C. v Fiorilla
2020 NY Slip Op 34362(U) December 31, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 654991/2019 Judge: Lucy Billings is a factual mess. What is clear, is that the motion for summary judgment was unopposed and quickly granted.
“The malpractice that defendant claims occurred November 9,…
Bianco v Law Offs. of Yuri Prakhin, 2020 NY Slip Op 07849 [189 AD3d 1326]
December 23, 2020 Appellate Division, Second Department tells a familiar legal malpractice story. Plaintiff slips and falls on ice on subway steps in NYC. Attorneys hired by her successfully file a Notice of Claim against NYC, but do not…
CPLR 3211(a)(1) allows for dismissal based upon “documentary evidence.” Such a win is usually “on the merits” and generally allows for later res judicata and collateral estoppel treatment. Dismissal under CPLR 3211(a)(7), while more common, is not on the merits and is not “with prejudice.” the later effects are much smaller, and a case can…
As Schoolman v. NcAuliffe 2020 NY Slip Op 34228(U) December 21, 2020 Supreme Court, Suffolk County Docket Number: 4311/2019 Judge: Sanford Neil Berland demonstrates, bankruptcy can serve as a sheering tool. Enter into bankruptcy and sone/all of your possessions are gone.
“”‘Upon the filing of a voluntary bankruptcy petition. all property which a debtor owns.including…
