Glaubach v PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 30875(U) May 9, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 157993/2016 Judge: O. Peter Sherwood is something of a nightmare. Plaintiff is the founder, former president and a minority shareholder of a home health services company which is successful. He takes a medical leave and all
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.
Volleyball, Sexual Misconduct and Professional Negligence
Sexual misconduct in the educational and more especially the school sport arena has become omnipresent. In Mulligan v Long Is. Fury Volleyball Club 2018 NY Slip Op 28132
Decided on May 1, 2018 Supreme Court, Suffolk County Santorelli, J. we see the effects of decisions by sport officials in handling reports of sexual misconduct between…
The Worker’s Compensation and Personal Injury Legal Malpractice Conundrum
Garcia v Polsky, Shouldice & Rosen, P.C. 2018 NY Slip Op 03339 Decided on May 9, 2018
Appellate Division, Second Department illustrates a common problem in legal representation. Plaintiff is injured on the job, but may have a personal injury or product liability case as well. Some firms specialize in WC work and don’t really…
A Bad Post-Nup and No One Responsible
Post-nuptual agreements are highly scrutinized and subject to strict rules. In Barrett v Goldstein 2018 NY Slip Op 03325 Decided on May 8, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department we see a situation in which a post-nuptial agreement that is poor for plaintiff is left in place, and none of the reviewing attorneys can be held…
Judiciary Law 487 in the Insurance Field
Justice Scarpula wades into a hotly contested multi-state, multi-party case to discuss, inter alia, Judiciary Law § 487. In SPV-LS LLC v Citron 2018 NY Slip Op 30681(U) April 16, 2018
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 152783/2017 she deftly describes the reach of Judiciary Law § 487 in the first department:
“An…
An Appeal Withdrawn, A Legal Malpractice Claim Survives
Plaintiff was fired from a municipal job, but may have had a good defense on appeal. The attorneys withdrew the appeal. Legal Malpractice?
Roth v. Ostrer , 2018 NY Slip Op 03218 Decided on May 3, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department suggests that it may well have been a departure from good practice.
“Plaintiff alleges…
Surrogate’s Court Takes On Judiciary Law 487
It’s rare for legal malpractice or Judiciary Law § 487 claims to be heard in Surrogate’s Court. Here, in Cooper v Klencner 2018 NY Slip Op 30664(U) April 13, 2018 Surrogate’s Court, New York County Docket Number: 2014-2912/C Judge: Rita M. Mella the fight is over a late-in-life bequest of a large-value liquor company to…
Plaintiff Gets Lots of Latitude In This Legal Malpractice Case
Castlewood Apparel Corp. v Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 30717(U)
April 23, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 150167/2017 Judge: Shlomo S. Hagler is a case which displays an unusual degree of latitude in denying a 3211 motion to dismiss. We have written that these motions seem to get…
What We Mean When We Speak of Lawyers
Litigation is alternatively a blood sport or the sport of kings. It takes a lot of money and sometimes tempers flare. In Englese v Sladkus 2018 NY Slip Op 50625(U) Decided on April 25, 2018
Supreme Court, New York County St. George, J. we see what happens when a litigant speaks candidly without any filtering.…
Court Takes a Deeper Look at the Motion to Dismiss
The process is set forth in CPLR 3211(c) wherein the Court may convert a motion to dismiss under CPLR 3211 into a motion for summary judgment under CPLR 3212, so long as adequate notice is given to the litigants. In Englese v Sladkus 2018 NY Slip Op 50621(U) Decided on April 25, 2018 Supreme Court,…