Summary judgment motion practice is the new trial, or put another way, there are very few trials in legal malpractice (or elsewhere) and a lot more dispositions on summary judgment. This obviously renders the various components of a motion for summary judgment all the more important. The expert’s affidavit can be the paramount item in
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.
For Want of A Proximate Cause Affidavit a Case is Lost
LaTouche v Terezakis 2015 NY Slip Op 07821 Decided on October 28, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department illustrates the perils of summary judgment motion practice. In all litigation, and in legal malpractice litigation to a higher degree, cases are sorted out and culled at the summary judgment level on a increasing basis. Defendants almost always…
The Statute of Limitations Begins When the Malpractice is Committed
Time passes quickly, and the right to sue can simply pass us by. When time is running in statute of limitations terms, all can be lost, as it was in Yardeny v. Tanenbaum
Decided on October 28, 2015 2015 NY Slip Op 07834 Appellate Division, Second Department.
“he three-year statute of limitations on a cause…
How Does The Appellate Division Signal Its Displeasure?
The Appellate Divisions of New York are deluged with appeals. In the First and Second Departments, there are 20 appeals scheduled for oral argument every day. In the general range of cases before the ADs, one sees a range of decisions. Some are thoughtful, some summary but each has its own signals embedded. In Esposito …
Really…How Could This Happen, and is it the Attorney’s Fault?
Ragunandan v Donado 2015 NY Slip Op 31957(U) October 23, 2015 Supreme Court, Queens County Docket Number: 12332 2012 Judge: David Elliot, is a case which caused us some head-scratching. Plaintiff was able to purchase a large number of real properties in Queens and rent them out. How did she cooperate in letting it all…
The Vast “But For” Wilderness in Professional Malpractice
Sure, it is easy to point out the shortcomings of professionals. They waited too long, they argued the wrong point, they were not forceful enough, they issued an overly critical report which was unwarranted! While most persons intuitively feel that identifying the shortcoming is the major part of the exercise, it is showing proximate cause,…
Accountants, Mistakes and Limitations of Liability
Bank hires accountants. Accountants fail to file an extension. Bank loses $ 2.5 Million in carry-back losses. Seems simple, no? Not simple.
In First Cent. Sav. Bank v Parentebeard, LLC 2015 NY Slip Op 31921(U) October 13, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 653680/2014 Judge: Shirley Werner Kornreich we see a limitation of…
Legal Malpractice From the Disciplinary Committee’s Viewpoint
Disciplinary charges are not an uncommon event, but we have rarely read of self-destructive conduct as is set forth in Matter of Frelix 2015 NY Slip Op 07775 Decided on October 22, 2015
Appellate Division, First Department Per Curiam. The conduct brought a 5 year suspension (they hinted that disbarment was just avoided). What is…
“We Were Following Orders” is not a Defense in Legal Malpractice
Attorneys have their own special obligations in handling financial matters for their clients. When they are told to wire money to a third party, they have some obligation to check on the bona fides of the recipient. They may not blindly follow wrongful or fraudulent orders. This is the reason we see summary judgment fail…
A Mega-Huge Legal Malpractice Case Ends in the Court of Appeals
There are legal malpractice cases, and then, there are world-class multi-million dollar cases of legal malpractice. Nomura Asset Capital Corp. v Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP 2015 NY Slip Op 07693 Decided on October 22, 2015 Court of Appeals Rivera, J. is one of the latter types. It involves commercial mortgage-backed securitization and this case…