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.
Kallista, S.A. v White & Williams LLP 2016 NY Slip Op 2609 Decided on January 7, 2016 Supreme Court, Westchester County Scheinkman, J. discusses legal malpractice and Judiciary Law 487. Last week we discussed the legal malpractice aspect of the case.
“This action arises out of claims that the Law Firm committed legal malpractice, and…
Patent and Trademark registrations are a very, very big part of the legal world, and even more important in the commercial sphere. What happens when a fledgling cosmetics company hires a law firm to file a trademark, protect the product, and allow for the cosmetic company to start selling skin-care products, and it all goes…
As many defense attorneys in legal malpractice settings argue, the legal malpractice claim often arises in response to an attorney’s action for fees, that is, as a counterclaim. The attorneys always say that the legal malpractice counterclaim is a reflex, and a poorly disguised one, and is there merely to try to avoid paying fees.…
Plaintiff detects what it considers to be deceitful statements made during litigation. The statements are brought to the attention of the court which declines to sanction the attorney. May Plaintiff then sue for JL 487? Gillen v McCarron 2015 NY Slip Op 01781 [126 AD3d 670] March 4, 2015
Appellate Division, Second Department suggests the…
Attorneys file a complaint and represent clients. Opposing parties are unhappy and eventually claim JL 487 violations. Events continue in two cases at once. The original case goes to trial and appeal. The Court finds for plaintiffs, which undercuts defendants JL 487 claims. What is the effect?
Ehrenkranz v 58 MHR, LLC 2015 NY Slip…
We’re continuing to review last years JL 487 cases. Del-Star Jewelry Corp. v Davidov
2015 NY Slip Op 31106(U) June 25, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 160690/2013 Judge: Ellen M. Coin is next. Here, third-party defendant attorneys represented opposing parties and deceitfully told the bankruptcy trustee that “any judgment against [Davidoff] would…
It seems to be a simple question. What is the statute of limitations for legal malpractice? After all, the Court of Appeals decided the issue squarely in Melcher v Greenberg Traurig, LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 02213 [23 NY3d 10] April 1, 2014 Read, J. Court of Appeals. “Thus, even if a claim for attorney…
We are reviewing all of the JL 487 cases from 2015. Today, we look at Barouh v Law Offs. of Jason L. Abelove 2015 NY Slip Op 06769 [131 AD3d 988] September 16, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department in which plaintiff hired attorney to file a shareholders’ derivative action against BEA. That action settled. BEA…
Judiciary Law 487, which is “not lightly” applied to attorneys resulted in a finite set of cases during 2015. Over the next month we will review all of the cases, and try to determine the trends. Today, we look at Armstrong v Blank Rome LLP; 2015 NY Slip Op 01755 [126 AD3d 427]
Decided on…
On the macro level, both areas concern professionals doing a less than maximal job. On a micro level, the rules are similar. A relationship, a departure and damages. How and when to apply the rules differs, as is seen in Alksom Realty LLC v Baranik 2015 NY Slip Op 50869(U) [47 Misc 3d 1227(A)] Decided…
