Judiciary Law § 487 is a harsh, almost medieval law, with treble damages and a potential criminal conviction lurking. The Appellate Division has said that it is not lightly granted, and in Brookwood Cos., Inc. v Alston & Bird LLP 2017 NY Slip Op 00535 [146 AD3d 662] January 26, 2017 Appellate Division, First Department
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.
Claim of Attorney Mistake is Utterly Refuted
Did the defendants wait too long to seek attorney fees as prevailing parties? If they did wait too long, it could be malpractice. In Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP v Telecommunication Sys., Inc. 2017 NY Slip Op 30951(U) May 5, 2017 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 653476/2016 Judge: Anil C. Singh sits…
Only Some Documents Count
Was there an attorney-client relationship or not? That will be the central issue in Prott v Lewin & Baglio, LLP 2017 NY Slip Op 03786 Decided on May 10, 2017 Appellate Division, Second Department. Defendants sought to prove at the pre-answer stage that the relationship had ended. The documentary proof was incompetent for purposes of…
Does “The Plaintiff’s then husband” Explain This Case?
It seems that when the husband was injured, the defendant law firm sued for both him and the wife (in loss of consortium). Years later it was said that the plaintiff signed a release for her “loss of services” claim. She denies settling her portion of the case. What happened? Were they now divorced and…
A Mild Description of Some Vicious Litigation
Often, an appellate decision is phrased in mild, soothing language, masking the trench warfare taking place beneath the surface. Polanco v Greenstein & Milbauer, LLP 2017 NY Slip Op 03707 Decided on May 9, 2017 Appellate Division, First Department is a prime example. Note the level upon which defendants treated plaintiff’s expert.
Beyond the way…
A Dead Client, a Dead Case
Estate cases sometimes run into the dead man’s statute, and even if not, there are unique difficulties in providing proofs of intent, which are sometimes very, very important. In Steffan v Wilensky
2017 NY Slip Op 03602 Decided on May 4, 2017 Appellate Division, First Department plaintiff can no longer prove that the bank account…
The Witness Was Not Reminded; The Case Was Lost
Courts often take claims of attorney mistakes short of the outright failure to start a case not so seriously. Many the act, which plaintiff claims is a departure, is said to be a failing but permitted strategic decision. Not so in Caso v Miranda Sambursky Sloane Sklarin Ver Veniotis LLP
2017 NY Slip Op 03607 …
What is A Fiduciary Relationship?
In legal malpractice cases it is presumed, generally conclusively, that an attorney is a fiduciary of the client. That principle probably derives from the education and licensing of the attorney. It can be true in many other relationships, as Milonakis v Haralampopoulos 2017 NY Slip Op 30863(U) April 26, 2017 Supreme Court, New York County …
Continuous Representation in the Accounting Field
The statute of limitations is a fierce barrier to litigation. Time ticks by in an excruciating but unstoppable parade. Three years can go by in a flash. The only toll to the statute (barring another inevitable, death) is continuous representation. It applies in legal malpractice as well as in accounting malpractice. In Reville v Melvin …
Just How Immediate Was That Benefit?
In big financial transactions, big law firm 1 may often interact with big law firm 2 in the generation of loan documents, opinion letters and the such. Their interaction, viz-a-viz the clients (on both sides) may yield significant risk the law firms.
Bloostein v Morrison Cohen LLP 2017 NY Slip Op 30833(U) April 21, 2017 …