Well known attorney has a longtime relationship with a CPA. CPA moves from firm to firm and takes the attorney’s tax business with him. It seems that he then files falsified tax returns, takes the attorney’s money and holds on to it, and does so while using his firms’ computer tax programs. CPA is indicted
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.
As The Boomer Generation Ages, Legal Malpractice Issues Emerge
Weinberg v Sultan 2016 NY Slip Op 05939 Decided on September 1, 2016 Appellate Division, First Department is an example of legal malpractice issues that will arise and continue to arise as the baby boomer generation divests itself of assets gathered during the past 50 years.
Here, the former son-in-law of plaintiff intervened in the…
A Legal Malpractice Action Lost Through, well…
Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion; legal malpractice practitioners are subject to greater scrutiny. That is the lot of those who work in the negligence fields. G. Willi-Food Intl. Ltd. v Herzfeld & Rubin, P.C. 2016 NY Slip Op 31625(U) August 26, 2016 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 161053/2014 Judge: Kelly A. O’Neill…
It Was Only Hours Late…But A Departure Nevertheless
A filing is due today. By an inadvertant error, it is not filed by midnight. It is filed before the opening of business the next day. Any repercussions in Legal Malpractice? Yep.
The mistakes catalogued in Shenzhen Kehuaxing Indus. Ltd. v Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP 2016 NY Slip Op 31593(U) August 12, 2016 …
Dissmissal, But With No Explanation
The AD2 is overburdened, and has an ultra busy caseload. As a result, its decisions are sometimes gnomic, dense and somewhat short on the detail of the underlying case. Silverman v Potruch & Daab, LLC 2016 NY Slip Op 05857 Decided on August 24, 2016 Appellate Division, Second Department is an example. The law…
Be Ever So Careful Which Cases You Take
A person comes to the office. He has had a car accident. While at the office, the law firm decides that it will not take the case, but gives it to an attorney who might be an “of counsel”, or an employee who is going off on his own, or simply someone hanging around. In…
So Often It’s Real Estate in Legal Malpractice Settings
Tai v Broche 2016 NY Slip Op 31586(U) August 18, 2016 Supreme Court, New York County
Docket Number: 652769/2011 Judge: Joan M. Kenney is the story of some high-stakes Manhattan real estate, and the legal malpractice claims that accompany it. The attorneys say that they warned their client not to close, but close it did. …
A Bad Bulk Sale. Buyer Sues Seller’s Attorney. Case Dismissed
The headline is the story in a nutshell. When a retail business is sold to a new owner, there will always be old sales taxes due to the State, even if only for the last quarter. A procedure exists so that the buyer can immunize itself from being responsible for the unpaid sales taxes of…
Accounting malpractice and Levels of Investigation
In the accounting malpractice world, defendants often try to distinguish between a “look-see” and a thorough audit. The audit examines bank records, backup, bills, invoices, tax returns, etc. Anything else is merely a “compilation” based upon provided records, and the usual disclaimer is that the client was unwilling to pay for the full audit. Unwilling…
Manhattan Real Estate Transactions Go Bad and Only the Notary Is Left
Ever since the founding of the Colony, Manhattan real estate has been a widely discussed and studied subject. The sale of 549 Manhattan Avenue is no exception. Was there fraud, duress, misconduct?
Jennings-Purnell v Donner 2016 NY Slip Op 31517(U) August 10, 2016 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 110344/2006 Judge: Robert D. Kalish…