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.
Generally speaking, we find that Courts favor attorneys in legal malpractice settings. Once in a while the opposite is true, and as always, the Appellate Division reviews these decisions and corrects any mistakes.
Jorge v Hector Atilio Marichal, P.C. 2016 NY Slip Op 04911 Decided on June 22, 2016
Appellate Division, Second Department discusses a…
Plaintiff law firm sues for unpaid fees. Knowingly, they wait more than three years after the end of the relationship to do so. Client files a legal malpractice counterclaim. Is it too late? The answer is “kinda.”
Balanoff v Doscher 2016 NY Slip Op 04896 Decided on June 22, 2016 Appellate Division, Second Department reminds…
A frequent sports simile is “no harm-no foul” which means that even if you are caught doing something wrong, if no one is harmed, it will be overlooked. The same is true both in legal malpractice and in violations of Judiciary Law § 487. In legal mal, if there is no “but for” (the mistake…
In Meredith v Siben & Siben, LLP 2015 NY Slip Op 06120 [130 AD3d 791] July 15, 2015
Appellate Division, Second Department defendants waited until late in the case to move to dismiss on the statute of limitations. Why? Perhaps some evidence had to be obtained, or perhaps it was an oversight. Result? The statute…
This case illustrates the problem when a client hires a state-wide law firm which engages in TV advertising and then watches the case bounce all over the state. Cellino & Barnes, P.C. v Law Off. of Christopher J. Cassar, P.C. 2016 NY Slip Op 04823 Decided on June 17, 2016
Appellate Division, Fourth Department is…
Was the wrongdoer a rogue or a trusted insider? Should the professional have deduced that there was wrongful conduct which damaged the corporation? If it was not discovered is there malpractice?
Stokoe v Marcum & Kliegman LLP 2016 NY Slip Op 00587 [135 AD3d 645] January 28, 2016
Appellate Division, First Department answers some of…
The statute of limitations in legal malpractice is three years, with no “discovery” rule. This harsh cut-off is ameliorated by the principle of continuous representation in which the statute of limitations is tolled while representation continues with a “continuing relationship of trust and confidence” and the joint understanding that more work is required and is…
Deep Woods Holdings LLC v Pryor Cashman LLP 2016 NY Slip Op 31077(U) June 8, 2016 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 652886/2015 Judge: Saliann Scarpulla discusses the attorney-client privilege in the setting of joint representation. This case is about the alleged failure to make a stock option call, and the loss of a…
Pieroni v Phillips Lytle LLP 2016 NY Slip Op 04618 Decided on June 10, 2016 Appellate Division, Fourth Department is an example of the “try-try-try again” school of litiagation. The case arises from a car dealership gone bad against a big upstate corporate law firm which, in this case, represented Ford.
“§ 487 action against…
Continuing with a further look at s a legal malpractice decision in which the law firm settled the case, yet the matter continues on. Here, in QBE Ins. Corp. v Maloof, Lebowitz, Connahan & Oleske, P.C. 2015 NY Slip Op 32113(U) May 13, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County
Docket Number: 600412/2010 Judge: Carol R.…
