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.
The difference between legal malpractice and Breach of Fiduciary Duty can be important. In Ferrara v Amritt-Hall 2015 NY Slip Op 31228(U) July 13, 2015 Supreme Court, Queens County Docket Number: 22203/11 Judge: Allan B. Weiss the difference is whether an attorney’s conduct is subject to a 3 or a 6-year statute of limitations.
The…
In the Surrogates’ Court, cases move slowly, in keeping with the universal understanding that the main character in the drama is dead. Steffan v Wilensky 2015 NY Slip Op 31194(U) July 8, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 150020/11 Judge: Cynthia S. Kern may well be an extreme example. Decedent died in 1993,…
Ponzi schemes, named for Charles Ponzi is a recurring situation for attorneys, especially those who meet with monied clients in transactional settings. Biberaj v Acocella 2014 NY Slip Op 06165 [120 AD3d 1285] September 17, 2014 Appellate Division, Second Department describes how an attorney-client relationship wandered into these storm tossed waters.
“The plaintiff and the…
There are dismissals on the merits and there are dismissals which are not on the merits. What difference, one might ask? The major difference is whether the case may be brought again within 6 months under CPLR 205.
The next question is whether a dismissal under CPLR 3211, a common event, is on the merits…
Law Firm A starts to represent Plaintiff. At some time afterwards, Law Firm B comes in. Legal malpractice ensues. Time goes by. Can Law Firm A be held responsible for Plaintiff’s losses? The answer depends on a number of salient issues, and the statute of limitations is one of them. When does the statute of…
What are fictitious profits, and how do they affect damages in accounting malpractice. Accounting malpractice is akin to legal malpractice, especially in that economic damages are paramount. Fictitious profits cannot serve as the source of actual damages. So, in Delollis v Margolin, Winer & Evens, LLP 2014 NYSlipOp 06935 October 15, 2014 Appellate Division, Second…
It’s not often that a civil litigant in State Court can wind up with the US Attorney and some of the bigger defense firms in NY arrayed against her. However, Ms. Lipin seems to have angered State Supreme Court, the Appellate Division, and possibly US District Court too. Lipin v Danske Bank
2015 NY Slip…
Unjust enrichment is not unlike a utility infielder in baseball. Its a nimble concept, ready to be applied and get in the game on short notice, and is willing to be place wherever it best serves the team.
Comprehensive Mental Assessment & Med. Care, P.C. v Gusrae Kaplan Nusbaum, PLLC 2015 NY Slip Op 05904 …
What could be more Manhattanite than the combination of a Central Park South double apartment, a real estate legal proceeding, lots of money and legal malpractice? Nothing that we can conjure.
Russo v Rozenholc 2015 NY Slip Op 06029 Decided on July 9, 2015 Appellate Division, First Department is about tenants who had a lovely…
Lawfirm signs on to represent plaintiffs and a “liaison for plaintiffs” in an ongoing legal malpractice and fee dispute action, and do so for about 6 months until they are disqualified due to a “conflict of interest in representing both the plaintiffs” and the liaison. Plaintiffs then go on to sue Lawfirm for legal malpractice…
