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.
Brion v Moreira 2016 NY Slip Op 31828(U) September 30, 2016 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 155815/2014 Judge: David B. Cohen teaches the essentials of contribution and indemnity in a legal malpractice setting.
Plaintiff wanted to have the will of a relative revoked, and an earlier will reinstated. There was big money at…
Argue about “duty” and “privity” as much as you wish, once an attorney agrees to undertake a task, they can be held responsible for not performing. While the “privity” bar is quite high, in Nilazra, Inc. v Karakus, Inc. 2016 NY Slip Op 01302 [136 AD3d 994] February 24, 2016 Appellate Division, Second Department the…
This was the order of events in 135 Bowery LLC v Sofer 2016 NY Slip Op 31012(U) June 2, 2016 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 108020/2011 Judge: O. Peter Sherwood.
“This is one of two cases based on the same set of facts. Steven Seitzman and Judith Scitzman (the Seitzmans) are the sole…
From this decision, it seems there is little difference, hence much duplication. Duplication in the legal malpractice world means dismissal of causes of action, which is what happened here. Justice Edmead bought none of defendant (counterclaimant’s) arguments. She dismissed the cause of action in Brinen & Assoc. v Krippendorff 2016 NY Slip Op 31803(U) September…
Generally speaking, the in pari delicto defense comes up in accounting malpractice cases, where it is alleged that the corporation, which may have benefited from the wrongful conduct not detected by the accountants, is unable to sue the accountants. Here, in Stokoe v Marcum & Kliegman LLP
2016 NY Slip Op 00587 [135 AD3d 645] …
American Sec. Ins. Co. v Church of God of St. Albans 2015 NY Slip Op 06699 [131 AD3d 903] September 2, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department explains the outer limits of professional responsibility for an architect. Entering into a contract with the client does not necessarily give rise to general tort liability to others (similar…
It is theoretically possible for plaintiff to win summary judgment in a negligence case; theoretically possible but very very rare. Benitez v United Homes of N.Y., LLC 2016 NY Slip Op 06153
Decided on September 27, 2016 Appellate Division, First Department is that rare case in which Plaintiff wins partial summary judgment against defendant-attorney on…
ACE Sec. Corp., Home Equity Loan Trust, Series 2006-SL2 v DB Structured Prods., Inc. 2016 NY Slip Op 26105 [52 Misc 3d 343] March 29, 2016 Friedman, J. is an extremely complicated residential mortgage-securities breach of contract case, the details of which are not particularly germane to legal malpractice considerations. What is interesting, however, is…
Caravello v One Mgt. Group, LLC 2015 NY Slip Op 07000 [131 AD3d 1191] September 30, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department is the rare legal malpractice case that survives a CPLR 3211 attack on a fraud or an aiding and abetting fraud claim. The decision is worthwhile reading for its definition of the elements of…
Plaintiff wanted to have an extension built and contacted with the architect. Four years later the NYC Department of Buildings hoisted a red flag, and the architect worked on fixing the problem. A lawsuit against others commenced and he was added later. When did the statute of limitations commence and was the action timely?
