Whether an attorney departed from good practice sometimes turns on whether the attorney actually had an obligation to deal with a particular issue. Whether the attorney was supposed to deal with that particular issue turns on the scope of the agreement between the attorney and the client. Attorneys are required to do adequate work when
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.
A Very Sad Allegation From a Famous Actor
Legal and professional malpractice cases engender two views. One is the transactional view which we often discuss. We talk about the statute of limitations, the specificity of allegations and privity. The second view is that of the victims of poor professional work. Their story is often left out of the analysis. In Herrmann v CohnReznick …
Bedrock Legal Principles in a Shaken Foundation Case
Cohen v Sive, Paget & Riesel, P.C. 2017 NY Slip Op 32295(U) October 27, 2017 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 154650/2013 Judge: Jennifer G. Schecter applies black-letter law to a shaken foundation legal malpractice case, leaving the legal malpractice claims standing, and the ancillary causes of action dismissed.
“In 2004, the Cohens’ neighbors–the…
Case Not Saved by Stipulation
A stipulation which stated that the statute of limitations would not be asserted failed to stop the assertion of the statute of limitations in Dineen v Pratt 2017 NY Slip Op 07590 Decided on November 1, 2017 Appellate Division, Second Department the first half of which we reported on yesterday.
“In a consolidated action and…
Behind Every Great Fortune Lies Years of Sibling Litigation
Reading legal malpractice cases brings up a wealth of sociological issues. Sibling v. Sibling and Parent v. Child issues in families with significant assets are recurring themes. Dineen v Wilkens
2017 NY Slip Op 07589 Decided on November 1, 2017 Appellate Division, Second Department is a prime example. Dad amassed a large farm, and tried…
Attorneys Move From Place To Place
Attorneys and cases move from law firm to law firm. How does that affect the statute of limitations for legal malpractice when attorney takes on case, moves to law firm 2 and then leaves the case behind there? Cordero v Koval Retjig & Dean PLLC 2017 NY Slip Op 05036 [151 AD3d 587]
June 20,…
One Can’t Wait Too Long To Amend
Amendments should be freely given, yet in Daniel R. Wotman & Assoc., PLLC v Chang
2017 NY Slip Op 02141 [148 AD3d 571] March 23, 2017 Appellate Division, First Department the court below correctly decided not to exercise its discretion when the proposed amendment comes far into the case.
“In this action commenced by plaintiff…
The Issue Is Raised, But No Decision is Issued
Judiciary Law 487 is tantalizingly raised, but not resolved in Solomon v Silverstein
2017 NY Slip Op 51400(U) Decided on October 11, 2017 Supreme Court, Richmond County
Minardo, J., the story of two sisters feuding over the care and assistance of their mother. Mom deposited $ 40,000 and the question is whether the two daughters…
Arbitration Is So Final
The jury system, along with the CPLR structure of motions and appeals can be cumbersome, long, but ultimately comforting. In contrast, the arbitration system plays to a single individual or tribunal, with no margin for reassessment. So went a case reported in the New York Law Journal, and sometime in the future will be determined…
Several Straightforward Lessons from the First Department
O’Neal v Muchnick Golieb & Golieb, P.C. 2017 NY Slip Op 03125 [149 AD3d 636] April 25, 2017 Appellate Division, First Department is notable for several terse lessons. They were set forth in bullet fashion in the opinion:
“The allegation that, while representing plaintiff in the assignment-of-lease negotiations, counsel secretly represented the counterparty so as…