A straight forward allegation of legal malpractice is the first step in a successful claim. A second step is connecting the described shortcomings and the claimed damages. In Lisi v Lowenstein Sandler LLP 2017 NY Slip Op 32411(U) November 16, 2017 Supreme Court, New York County
Docket Number: 160298/2016 Judge Shirley Werner Kornreich finds that
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.
In A Footnote, Legal Malpractice Question Has No Bearing
We’re disappointed that the legal malpractice question takes the back seat in an Appellate Division decision, but in Weiss v Phillips 2017 NY Slip Op 08209 Decided on November 21, 2017
Appellate Division, First Department Renwick, J. whether Phillips has a claim against his attorney is a question for the future.
“In this case, plaintiff…
A Pro-Se Accounting Malpractice Slips Away
The theme of time slipping away is fodder for song lyrics in all genres. In legal malpractice as well as in professional malpractice it is a constant theme. Things happen and clients do not discover it immediately; the objective wrongfulness of conduct does not become immediately apparent. Cases are started too late, as in Schwartz …
Judiciary Law 487 Differences from the Other Side
Last week we discussed how the First Department differs in its handling of Judiciary Law § 487 cases. Here in Gorbatov v Tsirelman 2017 NY Slip Op 07979 Decided on November 15, 2017
Appellate Division, Second Department is a further lesson, this time from the Second Department. Conspicuously missing here is any language of delinquency. …
A Legal Malpractice Case Slips Away From a Pro-Se Plaintiff
Legal malpractice, of course, deals with mistakes make by attorneys. Attorneys should not make mistakes, but being human, they do. Mistakes can sometimes be fixed, sometimes not. For Pro-se plaintiffs, mistakes come more often, and quick-fixes are not as common. Stevens v Law Off. of Blank & Star, PLLC 2017 NY Slip Op 08030 Decided…
How The First Department Differs From the Rest of New York
In Judiciary Law § 487 cases, the First Department has additional hurdles to clear not present in other Departments. While a single egregious event is sufficient outside of the First Department, Freeman v Brecher 2017 NY Slip Op 07949 Decided on November 14, 2017 Appellate Division, First Department shows us the three part test for…
A Judgment Call Requires Some Actual Judgment
A fair segment of legal malpractice dismissal are determined upon the assertion that the subject “error” was actually a strategic choice which went sour. In general, a good legal malpractice case cannot be based upon an “error in judgment” or a “strategic trial decision.” The underlying understanding is that trial and litigation decisions may often…
When Is A Judiciary Law 487 Case Permitted?
We admit to being a little confused. A Judiciary Law § 487 claim seeks damages because of attorney deceit, which generally must happen in a litigation setting. Must the claim be brought in the underlying setting or later, in a separate action. The answer seems to reside in whether the 487 claim merely seeks to…
Client Insurance and Legal Malpractice
Dismissal of a Legal Malpractice claim was denied (and affirmed) in Eurotech Constr. Corp. v Fischetti & Pesce, LLP 2017 NY Slip Op 07780 Decided on November 9, 2017 Appellate Division, First Department. The claim arose over whether it was the attorney’s obligation to deal with client insurance for the underlying claim.
“The complaint alleges…
A Problem Even the Appellate Division Divides Upon
Legal malpractice and CPLR 3211(a)(7) motions are an institutional problem. In our view, (as in the dissent’s view here) judges give unwarranted extra scrutiny to legal malpractice complaints, and grant 3211(a)(7) motions statistically in greater volume then they do to other types of cases. Our view is that it is an institutional problem because of…