Totally unexpected players in an attorney-fee-legal-malpractice case have led to a very interesting decision by Justice Kern that touches on a number of legal malpractice issues. Today, we will discuss the Judiciary Law § 487 claim for file churning in Kagan Lubic Lepper Findelstein & Gold LLP v 325 Fifth Ave. Condominium 2015 NY
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.
Getting Weary? Sue the Attorney
Mr. Karp and Mr. Cangemi made an arrangement to purchase and fund some investment real estate. Cangemi v Karp 2015 NY Slip Op 51185(U) Decided on August 6, 2015 Supreme Court, Queens County McDonald, J. After a while Mr. Karp grew “weary” of the arrangement and sought to shake things up. He sued not only…
Privity, Standing and When an Individual Might Sue His Attorney
We’ve taken a look at Saviano v Corniccelo 2015 NY Slip Op 31447(U) August 3, 2015
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 153168/2014 Judge: Kelly A. O’Neill Levy for the question of statute of limitations. Now, when might an individual sue when he has already given his rights over to an LLC ?…
The Statute of Limitations and Relation Back to an Earlier Pleading
Saviano v Corniccelo 2015 NY Slip Op 31447(U) August 3, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 153168/2014 Judge: Kelly A. O’Neill Levy discusses how an individual commencing an action might toll the statute of limitations for an LLC which then joins in.
“Plaintiffs allege in their complaint that in or around September 2010,…
The Couplet of Account Stated and Legal Malpractice
It is often said (one sees this in legal malpractice insurance applications and literature) that law suits for attorney fees will invariably trigger a legal malpractice counterclaim. This perception tarnishes the legal malpractice field in general, yet it has merit. Godosky & Gentile, P.C. v Brown
2015 NY Slip Op 31462(U) August 4, 2015 Supreme…
If It’s Old, It’s Cold, Especially in Legal Malpractice
Hahn v Dewey & Leboeuf Liquidation Trust 2015 NY Slip Op 31481(U) August 3, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 650817/2014 Judge: Eileen Bransten is an example of how high-flying plaintiffs can lose a legal malpractice case through the passage of time. The statute of limitations in legal malpractice highly favors the attorney,…
Buy A Nice Brownstone, But Don’t Get What You Expected? Is It Legal Malpractice
You’ve put together a nice sum of money, and now you want to buy that townhouse in Manhattan. Surely, its the crown of real estate…unless you are unable to put a 5th story on top because the prior owners already sold the air rights. So, you find out, and unfortunately, cancel the contract? Not in…
Death on the Construction Site (2)
On Friday we started to talk about a case in which a construction worker suffered electrical shock and fell 150″ to his death. The professionals in the case won dismissal, leaving the land owner and others to defend their actions. Today, we look at the land owner in Mulhall v Archdiocese of N.Y. 2015 NY…
An Unnecessary Death and the Failure to Inspect
Death on the construction site is a horrible thought. Decedent plaintiff in this case suffered an unnecessary electrical shock while working on a Church, and then fell 150 feet to his death. Are any of the professionals who planned or supervised the work potentially responsible?
Mulhall v Archdiocese of N.Y. 2015 NY Slip Op 31378(U) …
Winter Snow at Cornell? Absolutely Predictible
The world of general professional negligence is vastly similar to that of legal malpractice. Sometimes during the summer months, when the Appellate Division output slows down, we sample the world of Accounting or Architectural malpractice. Here is a story about expecting snow at Cornell University during the winter.
“In this personal injury action, plaintiff, an…