The statute of limitations is a significant issue for many litigants. There is a delay or lapse time between when a mistake is made and when a legal malpractice case is commenced. In some cases, plaintiffs wait to see whether a mistake can be fixed; sometimes new counsel don’t magically appear right away and there
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.
Defaults and Document Productions
47 Third Residential Invs. LLC v Georges 2018 NY Slip Op 30989(U) May 22, 2018
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 155636/2017 Judge: Robert D. Kalish is the sad story of architectural work, of mistakes, and of tremendous losses, now probably not covered by insurance.
“Plaintiff commenced the instant action on June 21, 2017,…
Too Little Explanation
ALBANY: The Third Department heard oral argument and rendered a decision in Mid-Hudson Val. Fed. Credit Union v Quartararo & Lois, PLLC 2017 NY Slip Op 07916 [155 AD3d 1218]
November 9, 2017 Appellate Division, Third Department, holding that in this legal malpractice case there were simply not enough allegations for the court to…
Some Big Names, Small Results in This Judiciary Law 487 Case
Despite the writing of one of the biggest names in legal circles, Appellant got absolutely nowhere in challenging Judge Kornreich. As she is retiring, this may be one of her last opinions.
Shawe v Elting 2018 NY Slip Op 03644 Decided on May 22, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department is an example of how the…
How Far Must The Attorney Go?
Client is injured. Attorney is hired. Attorney negotiates a rate of pay. Must the attorney look to see whether the client has insurance, and if so, how hard does the attorney have to look? Remember, if there is insurance there may be an insurance lawyer lurking and about to take over from the inquiring attorney.…
Professional Malpractice and Duplicity
ALBANY The Court of Appeals addressed professional malpractice and duplicity. Here we are discussing duplicitive causes of action, not deceit in the meaning of Judiciary Law § 487.
“The two questions on this appeal are whether plaintiff City of New York is an intended third-party beneficiary of the architectural services contract between plaintiff Dormitory Authority…
Here is One Variety of Legal Malpractice
In the super-heated world of Manhattan real estate, $9.8 Million apartments are the middle children. Not the biggest, not the smallest. However, Riviera Prop. Holdings, LLC v Ferber Chan Essner & Coller, LLP 2017 NY Slip Op 27424 [58 Misc 3d 708] July 31, 2017 Billings, J.
Supreme Court, New York County is an exceptional…
Could Be Deceit, Could Be Legal Malpractice
Gorbatov v Tsirelman 2017 NY Slip Op 07979 [155 AD3d 836] November 15, 2017 Appellate Division, Second Department is an example of allegations of legal malpractice and Judiciary Law § 487 that the Second Department find sufficient to avoid dismissal under CPLR 3211.
“The plaintiff Yevgeny Gorbatov is a licensed acupuncturist and the principal of…
Could This Be The First Judiciary Law 487 Jury Verdict?
Matter of Aris 2018 NY Slip Op 03633 Decided on May 10, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department Per Curiam is definitely not a jury case. However, it speaks of a trial of Joran Jehudah Aris, with a successful jury verdict on Judiciary Law § 487. We did not know of any jury verdicts for a…
Attorney Delay and Legal Malpractice Damages
There are some unique rules and principles in legal malpractice. One of them is that damages have to be in the nature of pecuniary or economic loss. Another is that damages have to be proximately linked to the departure by the attorney.
In Iannucci v Kucker & Bruh, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 03514 Decided…