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.
In one of the shortest decisions recently seen, the Appellate Division, First Department lays out the Successor Counsel doctrine which essentially immunizes the first attorney in Liporace v Neimark & Neimark, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 00112 Decided on January 9, 2018.
“The Neimark defendants’ failure to serve a timely notice of claim on the…
Supreme Court dismissed the complaint, but the First Department’s examination of the documents led to the opposite result in Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc. v Morrison & Foerster LLP , 2018 NY Slip Op 00091 Decided on January 9, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department.
“Accepting plaintiff client’s allegations as true and drawing all reasonable inferences in…
Negligence is negligence, no? Well, they are different as Amendola v Brookhaven Health Care Facility, LLC
2017 NY Slip Op 04090 [150 AD3d 1061] May 24, 2017 Appellate Division, Second Department points out.
“The plaintiff Raymond Amendola (hereinafter the plaintiff), and his wife suing derivatively, commenced this action against Brookhaven Health Care Facility, LLC (hereinafter…
Legal malpractice cases, as we have said, cover events and issues all over the world. Here, a land-owner was unhappy about trespassers over his property, trying to get to a beach. The annoyance led to litigation, to appeals, to legal malpractice and judiciary law § 487 claims. Palmieri v Perry, Van Etten, Rozanski & Prima …
It doesn’t get much simpler than a legal malpractice claim that the attorneys failed to answer, and a default judgment was entered. When does the statute of limitations commence? Billiard Balls Mgt., LLC v Mintzer Sarowitz Zeris Ledva & Meyers, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 00018
Decided on January 2, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department…
The concept is familiar, but the name of this particular doctrine is new to us. The First Department, in Palmeri v Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP Decided on December 28, 2017 enunciated the following:
“Here, plaintiff alleges not only that defendant breached its fiduciary duty when it terminated its professional relationship with him, but also…
Attorney fee disputes reflexively lead to legal malpractice claims. While that is true, the concept that all legal malpractice claims are dubious strongly overshadows the unassailable fact that attorneys are human, and that without any doubt, humans make mistakes. That being said, Louis F. Burke PC v Aezah 2017 NY Slip Op 32670(U) December 14,…
Although the headline may sound exhortatory, it is rather a recitation of when a Judiciary Law § 487 claim may properly lie against a attorney-client, rather than an attorney who represents a client. Witty v 1725 Fifth Ave. Corp. 2017 NY Slip Op 32624(U) December 12, 2017 Supreme Court, Suffolk County Docket Number: 02509-17 Judge:…
Malpractice, as delineated from mere negligence, is that of a “professional toward a person for whom a service is rendered. Santiago v. 13 70 Broadway Assoc., L. P., 264 A.D .2d 624 (I 51 Dept 1999). ” The statute of limitations for all professionals other than physicians is 3 years. It’s 2.5 years for…
In this season, gifts are being shuttled around, and many look to receive. Board of Mgrs. of Brightwater Towers Condominium v SNS Org., Ltd. 2017 NY Slip Op 31791(U) August 24, 2017 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: 503102/16 Judge: Lawrence S. Knipel is an example what happens when one asks correctly for a second…
