There is a long history of doctor-lawyer litigations. Often there seems to be a disconnect between the world-views of the protagonists. Lawyers may seem avaricious and doctors naive and pedantic. In Dubrow v Herman & Beinin 2017 NY Slip Op 31545(U) July 21, 2017 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 651605/2016 Judge: Ellen M.
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.
Plaintiff Skates Over Summary Judgment; Finds the Perfect Snow Storm Explanation
Snow and ice cases are difficult. Fall too soon and the landowner gets the benefit of the “strorm-in-progress” defense. Fall at the right time, and you have to prove that the landowner created the situation. Hire the wrong attorney, and your legal malpractice case difficulty rises to the Nth degree. So, Balan v Rooney 2017…
A Sole Cause of Action Survives After Reversal on Appeal
Palmeri v Wilkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 2017 NY Slip Op 05794 Decided on July 25, 2017
Appellate Division, First Department is one of those rare cases where a subsidiary cause of action survives, while the major causes of action are all dismissed. In the legal malpractice world, the major cause of action is LM,…
The Outcome Was Correct; The Process Was Flawed
When you tease out the underlying process of the summary judgment motion practice in Burbige v Siben & Ferber 2017 NY Slip Op 05704 Decided on July 19, 2017 Appellate Division, Second Department it becomes apparent that the Appellate Division saw less in the underlying motions than did Supreme Court. Both, however, came to the…
Maintenance or Repair? It Really Makes A Difference in this Legal Malpractice Case
Under Labor Law §240(1) a person may prevail in litigation if injured “during the “erection, demolition, repairing, altering, painting, cleaning or pointing of a building or structure” (Labor Law § 240[1]; see Moreira v Ponzo, 131 AD3d 1025, 1026; Enos v Werlatone, Inc., 68 AD3d 713, 714). In determining whether a particular activity…
Pump and Dump All The Way to Prison…Legal Malpractice Too?
Wimbledon Fin. Master Fund, Ltd. v Weston Capital Mgt. LLC 2017 NY Slip Op 31515(U)
July 17, 2017 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 653468/2015 as explained by Judge Shirley Werner Kornreich is the material of a movie. Here it is in a nutshell:
“This action involves approximately 30 defendants and has already, in…
Death, Malpractice and Surrogate’s Court
One does not often see legal malpractice cases reported out of Surrogate’s Court. Matter of Schleifer 2017 NY Slip Op 31501(U) July 14, 2017 Surrogate’s Court, New York County
Docket Number: 2010-3599/A Judge: Rita M. Mella is a big-number, multi-defendant real estate and commercial estate-fraud-legal malpractice case. It discusses a number of fraud-rescission-release-pleading issues which…
A Major League Arbitration Tagged Out; Game Goes Into Extra Innings
First off, look at the lineup.
Chadbourne & Parke LLP, New York (Thomas J. Hall of counsel), and Cooley LLP, New York
Sidley Austin LLP, Washington, DC (
Sidley Austin LLP, New York
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, New York
Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Washington, DC (Paul Clement) , Williams & Connolly, New York…
An Interesting Primer on Legal Fee Billing and Retainers
In Menaker & Herrman, LLP v Foster 2017 NY Slip Op 31456(U) July 7, 2017 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 651969/2016 Judge Manuel J. Mendez presents a primer on the law of legal fee billing and retainer agreements.
“The complaint alleges that on May 3, 2013, defendant, Larry J. Guffey, an at1:orney, retained…
A Real Mess, Across The Board
Professional Negligence, especially in the real estate construction field is the source of a number of litigation problems. Architects routinely use arbitration clauses. Zoning issues, including the mistaken analysis of what might be built on a specific lot are themselves subject to governmental immunity. 2649 E. 23 LLC v New York City Dept. of Bldgs.…