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.
You might call this bootstrapping; Plaintiffs called it proper discovery. Note that the claim was said to be late on earlier motions; now plaintiff gets to add claims for very old audits in this accounting malpractice action.
In Conway v Marcum & Kliegman LLP 2016 NY Slip Op 31933(U) October 11, 2016 Supreme Court, New…
We are proud to showcase today’s Outside Counsel Column in the NYLJ “The ‘But For’ Black Hole in Legal Malpractice” written by Andrew Lavoott Bluestone.
Aside from the fact that almost all of the parties to this transaction, as well as to the legal representation are dead, the point of this case is that courts will not allow speculation on what advice might have been given and how a specific person might have reacted to that advice, when there is…
A New York legal malpractice case on top of a legal malpractice case on top of bad representation in a criminal case in Florida and California for a capital murder prosecution in Federal Court fairly shouts of desperation. The fact that it was brought in New York rather than in California or Florida suggests the…
Gerschel v Christensen 2016 NY Slip Op 06794 Decided on October 18, 2016 Appellate Division, First Department brings up the inexplicable question of why plaintiffs wait so long to bring an action. A trust dissolves, and plaintiffs don’t get their money. They have either 3 or 6 years in which to sue. However, nine years…
We read a lot of legal malpractice cases, and have heard a lot of legal malpractice dismissal motions, and some arguments are both common and predictable. Counsel will argue that the case is ridiculous, or angrily state that it completely lacks merit, or that it was started only to avoid paying legal fees. These arguments…
It is almost universally said at Legal Malpractice (or Professional Responsibility) CLEs that suing your clients for legal fees not paid is the surest source of a legal malpractice counterclaim. Legal fee billing appears, anecdotally, to be the largest category of litigation involving attorneys. Exeter Law Group LLP v Immortalana Inc. 2016 NY Slip…
The Appellate Division was shockingly clear in its enunciation of this standard, with which we were not familiar. Plaintiffs created a unique investment strategy, and marketed it. The IRS found fault, and assessed promoter penalty fines in excess of $7 Million. Defendant law firm filed a bankruptcy petition, and the litigation started. Unfortunately for Plaintiffs,…
They’re the same, no? Well, no. Malpractice is the negligence of professionals, and simple negligence is the failure to use reasonable means. However, Judge Mendez does a much better job of explaining in All Craft Fabricators, Inc. v Syska Hennessy Group, Inc. 2015 NY Slip Op 32239(U) November 23, 2015 Supreme Court, New York…
Magder v Lee 2015 NY Slip Op 32254(U) November 23, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 653917/14 Judge: Saliann Scarpulla is the story of a complicated movie deal gone sour. Nestled within is a legal malpractice case. Watch how the Court simplifies the proceedings in the face of a legal malpractice claim.
“Plaintiff…
