Legal malpractice cases are subject to a level of scrutiny greater than all other cases in the “but for” determination. That’s built into the legal malpractice world along with the privity rule and is there for social policy reasons. If it were not, then every case, whether lost by plaintiff or defendant would immediately morph
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.
Judiciary Law 487 Claim Goes To Trial
Few Judiciary Law 487 claims survive the rugged course of litigation and make it over the last hurdle. Here, in Ginsburg Dev. Cos., LLC v Carbone 2015 NY Slip Op 09250 Decided on December 16, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department the Second Department affirmed Supreme Court and left the JL 487 claim for trial. Interestingly,…
No Privity, No Near-Privity, No Case
One of the defining characteristics of professional malpractice, which differs from negligence as a whole, is the concept of privity. If a washing machine is negligently designed, anyone hurt in using the machine can sue. However, in professional and legal malpractice one may sue only those with whom they have a professional relationship, one of…
Are Experts Required in Legal Malpractice Bench Trials?
We had not considered the question of how a bench trial and a jury trial might differ in the use of experts. Remembering that an expert is necessary when the experience of an ordinary trier of fact does not encompass the issues, we recently ran across Oikonomos, Inc. v Bahrenberg
2015 NY Slip Op 51300(U)…
The Rare Departure From Privity
Mr. San, LLC v Zucker & Kwestel, LLP 2013 NY Slip Op 08416 [112 AD3d 796] December 18, 2013 Appellate Division, Second Department is the very rare departure from the rule of strict privity in legal malpractice. The exception is well known, and often quoted: ” fraud, collusion, malicious acts or other special circumstances.” Knowing…
It Ends When the Paperwork is Done, Not Earlier
Accountant (or other professional) is retained to provide professional services. On Day X the business to which the professional services are rendered “closes.” On Day x+10 the professional returns all the papers, does the final report and “resigns.” On which day does the three-year statute of limitations commence?
Weight v Day 2015 NY Slip Op…
In Pari Delicto and One of the Few Exceptions
In Pari Delicto, a delicious Latin phrase, is the principal that a court will not adjudicate rights between two guilty parties. This concept arises most often in accounting negligence settings, but does rear its head from time to time in legal malpractice. The accounting setting arises when the corporation sues its accountants, who defend…
What Is Accounting Malpractice
The most basic question in any professional negligence setting is what are the base elements of a professional negligence claim? Before one considers statutes of limitation, the amounts of damage, and many other collateral issues, the initial question to be decided is the standard of practice and how/whether the defendant departed from that standard.
Board …
They Both Loved Classic Cars, They were Friends, But Fraud and Legal Malpractice?
Comer v Krolick 2015 NY Slip Op 32274(U) December 2, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 651767/2014 Judge: Shirley Werner Kornreich is a fascinating look at the world of big investments in the banking field, and how a Wisconsin guy got roped into a huge investment that either unluckily or fraudulently went sour.…
Duplication in A Professional Negligence Case
Architect malpractice cases follow some of the rule of legal malpractice. One such rule is the inability to obtain damages on duplicitive claims of breach of contract and professional negligence. Mary Imogene Bassett Hosp. v Cannon Design, Inc. 2015 NY Slip Op 03016 [127 AD3d 1377] April 9, 2015 Appellate Division, Third Department illustrates this…