Estate of Brook v Ruotolo 2026 NY Slip Op 32036(U) May 11, 2026
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 805045/2024
Judge: John J. Kelley reads like a movie. Well off mother and father engage in proper estate planning, husband and son become successor-attorneys-in-fact with healthcare proxies only to have an uncle come
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.
Beneficiary Loses Estate Case on Statute of Limitations Defense
As is so familiar, legal malpractice cases based upon negligent estate planning often founder on the time lapse between the negligent advice and the unfavorable outcome of that advice. Chester v List 2026 NY Slip Op 02962 May 13, 2026 Appellate Division, Second Department is an example.
“On May 31, 2024, the plaintiff commenced this…
In This Cases Between A Member and A Law Firm, the Member Loses (2)
We discussed Zabit v Brandometry, LLC 2026 NY Slip Op 31752(U) April 16, 2026
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 656563/2021
Judge: Emily Morales-Minerva on Monday. Here is the balance of the decision.
“In this action, as undisputed at oral argument, the causes of action plaintiffs assert against law firm and attorney…
In This Cases Between A Member and A Law Firm, the Member Loses
A very familiar situation in legal malpractice is where one member of an LLC sues the law firm over its representation of the LLC to the member’s detriment. Often the law firm has been hired solely by the LLC and the member believes that the law firm is protecting the member’s interests. Zabit v Brandometry, …
Fraudulent Schemes to Take Title to Property, Legal Malpractice and Academic Appeals
The main lesson of Bruce v Solny 2026 NY Slip Op 02815 May 6, 2026 Appellate Division, Second Department is that an amended complaint renders the initial complaint “superseded” and no longer may be appealed. Amendment of the complaint occurs often in early motion practice after defendants make a CPLR 3211 motion.
“This action arises…
Failure to Notify of Settlement Offers and Callous Disregard of the Probability of An Excess Verdict and Legal Malpractice
Stumacher v Medical Liab. Mut. Ins. Co. 2026 NY Slip Op 02734 April 30, 2026 Appellate Division, First Department tells the story of a med malpractice defense which did not end well for the doctor.
“Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Judith N. McMahon, J.), entered March 31, 2025, which denied defendant Medical Liability Mutual…
Counterclaims or Plenary Action?
Berry v Batash 2026 NY Slip Op 01755 Decided on March 25, 2026 Appellate Division, Second Department deals with the question of whether certain claims, Judiciary Law 487 amoungst them, had to be brought as counterclaims, or could they be broght in a plenary action. While Urias v. Buttafuoco is not mentioned it looms large…
Advocacy Or Deceit?
On a fairly simple factual level, Dewald v Dewald 2026 NY Slip Op 31523(U)
April 10, 2026 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 161582/2025 Judge: Phaedra F. Perry-Bond discusses the dividing line between advocacy and deceit, and what will convert one to the other.
“The Judiciary Law § 487 is dismissed (see…
Is This The Most Hallucinatory of All Legal Malpractice Cases?
There has been a lot of back and forth about AI mistakes in case citation, and overly unreasonable reliance on AI in guiding legal arguments. We think that Kleyman Law Group, P.C. v Kaloidis 2026 NY Slip Op 31557(U) April 13, 2026 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: Index No. 502644/25 Judge: Heela D. Capell…
Contribution, Indemnity, Successor Counsel and Legal Malpractice
In an unusually detailed and explanatory decision, Judge Hasa A. Kingo dissects the question of successor liablity in a legal malpractice setting, contribution and indemnity between predecessor and successor counsel and legal malpractice. The case is 99th Ave. Holdings, LLC v Schatz 2026 NY Slip Op 31476(U) April 9, 2026 Supreme Court, New York County…