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.
We’re proud to present our “Judiciary Law § 487 Suffers an Earthquake” article from today’s New York Law Journal. It discusses the recent sweep of JL § 487 law, including Bounkhoun v. Barnes et al., Case No. 15-cv-631A, which now awaits a decision by District Judge Joseph Arcara whether to accept the recommendation.
A…
Here is a good example of a “no-damage” claim against an attorney. The claim fails in this case for two reasons. The first reason is that plaintiff has not been harmed. No damages can be pled. The second reason is that plaintiff cannot really say what the attorney might have done wrong.
In a fact pattern that could have come from a bar exam, Justice Bannon dissects the fraud-discovery-statute of limitations issues arising from a real-estate fraud scheme which is said to have involved attorneys, lenders, borrowers and developers.
D. Penguin Bros., Ltd. v City Natl. Bank 2017 NY Slip Op 31926(U) September 8, 2017
Supreme Court,…
Professionals are often sued in both tort and contract. So what is the difference? One is a general wrong to the public and one is a specific wrong to a contracting party. Judge Scarpulla discusses the issue in City of New York v Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc.
2017 NY Slip Op 31906(U) September 7, 2017 …
Maroulis v Sari M. Friedman, P.C. 2017 NY Slip Op 06437 Decided on September 13, 2017
Appellate Division, Second Department is a textbook example of why approximately 40% of Judiciary Law § 487 cases are dismissed. The Courts don’t really like them, and lack of damages proximately caused by the violation is the stated reason. …
Privity is an essential element of standing to bring a legal or other professional malpractice claim. Lack of privity reduces the ability to sue (some other person’s attorney) to fraud, malice or collusion. So privity is ultra-important. What happens when a stockholder wishes to sue the corporations attorney? In that case the claim is either…
Kimbrook Rte. 31, L.L.C. v Bass 2017 NY Slip Op 01083 [147 AD3d 1508] February 10, 2017
is the Appellate Division, Fourth Department’s latest JL §487 case. It reversed Supreme Court’s dismissal of the complaint. It has two significant lessons.
“Plaintiffs commenced this Judiciary Law § 487 action against defendant based on her conduct when…
Last week we reported a stunning decision in the Melcher case which gutted its damage claim. Today, Christine Simmons in the New York Law Journal reports that the trial is stayed pending an appeal. It will be the third appeal in the case which has gone up to the AD, to the New York Court…
The statute of limitations has a haunting presence in legal malpractice. It both generates and limits legal malpractice cases. It is a source of many cases, i.e. where the underlying case was not started on time. The Statute also plays a limiting role in legal malpractice when clients do not understand or learn of the…
Medical Malpractice preceeded legal malpractice (the ancient joke being that you could not have medical malpractice until a lawyer was around to harass a doctor) and continuous treatment begat continuous representation. Here, in Lewis v Rutkovsky 2017 NY Slip Op 06342 Decided on August 29, 2017 Appellate Division, First Department we see both an well-written…
