Attorneys who are the subject of counter-claims of legal malpractice often denigrate the quality of the counterclaim by arguing that it merely a reflexive way of not paying their bill. Sometimes they are right, which devalues the balance of well-pleaded legal malpractice claims. Sometimes the threat of a legal malpractice case has even shakier footing.
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.
An Attorney Fee Case Turns Into a Border War
Balestriere PLLC v Banxcorp 2014 NY Slip Op 32941(U) November 17, 2014 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 650919/10 Judge: Joan A. Madden is yet another example of how an attorney fee-dispute can morph into a much larger case, and sometimes a real problem for the attorney.
“The Firm was retained by defendants in…
First, the Attorney Must Prove It Did No Wrong
Harris Beach PLLC v Eber Bros. Wine & Liq. Corp. 2014 NYSlipOp 06704 [121 AD3d 1524]
October 3, 2014 Appellate Division, Fourth Department is an interesting case in which the Third Department briskly reversed the order of Supreme Court. Harris Beach is a large powerful upstate law firm, and it sued for close to…
A One-Two Knockout in a Legal Malpractice Case
Sometimes what appears to be a clear and convincing description of a mistake by an attorney fails to elicit approval from Supreme Court or from the Appellate Division. One reads the introduction to a decision, and it’s almost -wham- “that sounds like a real departure”. Then you read the balance of the decision, and the…
Privity and Professional Negligence
For social policy reasons, courts have severely limited the class of persons who may sue an attorney for legal malpractice. The alternative, courts have often held, is chaos. After every case, no matter who wins, the losing party will sue both attorneys. There will be two legal malpractice cases for every regular case! The same…
Is An Architect a Professional? Is a non-Architect still a Professional?
Claims against a professional for negligence arise from policy reasons, not simply from breach of contract grounds. So, a non-architect might still be liable for professional negligence. Silverboys, LLC v Skordas 2015 NY Slip Op 31711(U) September 4, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 653874/2014 Judge: Saliann Scarpulla is the story of a…
The Difference Between “Fraud on the Court” and Judiciary Law 487
Judiciary Law §487 is a really really old common law provision coming to us from medieval England. Fraud on the Court has been happening since the first day a court was held anywhere. They are similar, but have differences. Tooker v Schwartzberg 2015 NY Slip Op 31620(U)
August 17, 2015 Supreme Court, Suffolk County Docket…
No Legal Malpractice Alleged; A Lot of Fraud Claimed
How does continuous representation interplay with claims of fraud by attorneys? Hansen-Nord v Youmans 2015 NY Slip Op 31684(U) September 1, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 651924/2014 Judge: Anil C. Singh discusses the unusual situation in which an attorney and a law firm are accused of aiding and abetting fraud, but not…
What Makes a Decision Strategic Rather Than Negligence?
Continuing to look at Tantleff v Kestenbaum & Mark 2015 NY Slip Op 06720 Decided on September 2, 2015 the Appellate Division, Second Department answers that discussion and a rational explanation for a decision may well make it strategic rather than negligence.
“Here, the cause of action to recover damages for legal malpractice accrued on…
Continuous Representation in a Tax Setting
Attorney gives advice to sign a certain tax document, and the result is additional or unnecessary tax liability. When does the statute of limitations commence and under what circumstances might it be tolled?
Tantleff v Kestenbaum & Mark 2015 NY Slip Op 06720 Decided on September 2, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department gives an answer…