Savitt v Greenberg Traurig, LLP 2015 NY Slip Op 02003 [126 AD3d 506] March 12, 2015
Appellate Division, First Department is an example of the general way in which the Appellate Division and the various Supreme Courts treat Judiciary Law §487 claims, which are not “lightly given.” A brisk dismissal with the reason that the
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.
Matrimonial and Custody Damages are Difficult to Monetize in Legal Malpractice Cases
One of the four elements in legal malpractice is “ascertainable damages.” They are more easily provable in some settings than in others. Custody and matrimonial economic damages are very hard to demonstrate, as Miazga v Assaf 2016 NY Slip Op 01025 Decided on February 11, 2016
Appellate Division, Third Department shows us.
“Plaintiff retained defendants…
Continuous Representation Still Exists, But Not In This Case
The statute of limitations for legal malpractice is three years under CPLR 214(6). That statute may be tolled during the period of continuous representation. Continuous representation, for social policy reasons, tolls the running of the statute so that a client is not required to sue the attorney while the representation continues on, allowing for the…
An Obscure Reference to Judiciary Law 487 in the Withdrawal of an Attorney
Hudson v Hahn Kook Ctr. (USA), Inc. 2016 NY Slip Op 00882 Decided on February 9, 2016
Appellate Division, First Department presents us with an unusual setting for a Judiciary Law 487 claim. This claim came up within the underlying case, and took place during the withdrawal of the attorney and his claim under Judiciary…
A Matrimonial Legal Malpractice Claim Dismissed
It wasn’t the pleading of the claim, and it wasn’t merely that the claim was settled. The Appellate Division, 4th Department found that Counter-claimant wife could not get past a speculative description of damages in Chamberlain, D’Amanda, Oppenheimer & Greenfield, LLP v Wilson 2016 NY Slip Op 00841 Decided on February 5, 2016 Appellate Division,…
Unexplained and Unusual Collateral Estoppel in a Legal Malpractice Case
Generally speaking, there is no collateral estoppel defense available to defendant attorneys in a legal malpractice case. They often say, for example, that because a case was dismissed, it’s your fault, not theirs, and hence you should not be able to sue them for the bad outcome. Their legal argument is that you are…
If You See Something Say Something Does Not Apply to Legal Malpractice Cases
The confluence of First Amendment rights, the overarching current need for celebrity and self-promotion appear to have collided in a case where plaintiff retained attorneys to represent him, then resolved the case, and decided to speak to the Wall Street Journal in violation of a non-disparagement provision of the underlying contract. Result: bad for the…
In Pari Delicto and the World of Malpractice
Whether in legal malpractice, accounting malpractice or legal malpractice about an accounting malpractice claim, In Pari Delicto is a powerful defense widely wielded by defendants. They say, in essence, we sued a wrongdoer, but failed. Now you (the wrongdoer’s employer) sue us. Courts should not intervene between two wrongdoers, and that’s what you are asking…
Legal Malpractice Gone; Other Claims Still Here
Skarla v NPSFT LLC 2016 NY Slip Op 30152(U) January 27, 2016 Supreme Court, Queens County Docket Number: 90/14 Judge: Allan B. Weiss takes a long time to explain, but its all about real estate, and the desire to take over some juicy properties. Did the attorney wrongfully help out? That’s still to be…
A Judiciary Law 487 Claim Survives
Kagan Lubic Lepper Findelstein & Gold LLP v 325 Fifth Ave. Condominium 2015 NY Slip Op 31470(U) August 6, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 151878/15 Judge: Cynthia S. Kern is an example which will likely be cited in this years Legal Malpractice continuing legal education seminars as a reason not to sue…