Barrett v Sacks & Sacks, LLP 2025 NY Slip Op 02547 Decided on April 29, 2025 Appellate Division, First Department is an example of the “but for” part of the legal malpractice formula. The legal malpractice formula holds that a successful legal malpractice claim shows, (i) departure from good practice; (ii) which proximately causes a
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.
Still Too Early
Xiuwen Qi v Hang & Assoc., PLLC 2025 NY Slip Op 31308(U) April 16, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 151821/2023 Judge: Mary V. Rosado is a discussion of “ripeness” and when a legal malpractice case can or cannot be proven.
“Upon the foregoing documents, and after a final…
Was She An Employee or An Independent Contractor
This question can have large real world consequences as we see in Park W. Exec. Servs., Inc. v Gallo Vitucci & Klar, LLP 2025 NY Slip Op 31462(U) April 25, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 157052/2024 Judge: Paul A. Goetz. In a legal malpractice setting, whether the attorneys “admitted” that…
Not The Usual “Account Stated” Case
Goldstein v Scott Seidler Family Trust 2025 NY Slip Op 31422(U) April 22, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 156268/2021 Judge: Judy H. Kim is a very unusual attorney fee/legal malpractice defense case. It is unusual for the initial highly aggressive procedure, as well as the assuredness with which the Court…
Not Bad Enough
Mohammad v Rehman 2025 NY Slip Op 01622 Decided on March 19, 2025 Appellate Division, Second Department has a Judiciary Law 487 claim which is dismissed on the pleadings as not bad enough. This is a very common CPLR 3211 decision in Judiciary Law 487 cases.
“In October 2019, the plaintiff commenced this action against…
Some Procedural Issues in a Legal Malpractice Case
Here, defendants oppose amendment, renew their opposition, and then take an appeal. The appeal fails.
“In May 2016, the plaintiffs commenced this action to recover damages for legal malpractice against the defendant, their former attorneys, who represented the plaintiffs in connection with leasing certain real property located in Manhattan. The plaintiffs amended the complaint in…
More Real Estate Legal Malpractice
Real Estate transactions and litigation take up a major space in the legal malpractice world. Lending Assets LLC v Gerbi 2025 NY Slip Op 31229(U) April 10, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 152329/2023 Judge: Judy H. Kim is one such example.
“In this legal malpractice action, plaintiff alleges that on…
A Bunch of Confusion Early On Leads to Motion Practice
Kakushadze v Skin Cancer & Aesthetic Surgery, P.C. 2025 NY Slip Op 31149(U) April 3, 2025 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: Index No. 500196/2023 Judge: Ingrid Joseph seems to be (the decision does not discuss representation of plaintiff) the kind of issues that arise in pro-se cases.
“Plaintiff Zurab Kakushadze (“Plaintiff”) commenced this action…
Failure To Raise Court of Appeals Precedent Can Be Legal Malpractice
Whether other issues will work in the attorney’s favor is a question for summary judgment. In Golden Ins. Co. v Vogrin & Frimet, LLP 2025 NY Slip Op 31103(U) April 4, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 162162/2023 Judge: Mary V. Rosado, the court held that failing to raise a controlling…
Philosophy 101 – What Is A Signature?
The words “legal malpractice” are mentioned only in passing, yet Medical Supply of NY Corp. v State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. 2025 NY Slip Op 50412(U) Decided on April 1, 2025 Civil Court Of The City Of New York, Kings County Roper, J. is a fascinating analysis of what is a signature. The notary…