Attorneys frequently have a business on the side. After all, they think, I can do the legal work and reap the benefits. In Lee & Amtzis, LLP v American Guar. & Liab. Ins. Co. 2015 NY Slip Op 02919 Decided on April 7, 2015
Appellate Division, First Department Gische, J., J. it did not
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.
What Happens When The Retainer Agreement Overreaches?
The retainer agreement in McCallion & Assoc., LLP v Dyche 2014 NY Slip Op 32254(U) August 20, 2014
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 157793/13 Judge: Joan A. Madden is not overtly onerous. It, like Matter of Lawrence does allow for a very large fee. Take a look at how Judge Madden of New…
The Shortest Appellate Division Decision of the Month
In a short and cryptic decision, the First Department affirmed dismissal of a legal malpractice case. Evart v Shapiro, Beilly & Aronowitz, LLP 2015 NY Slip Op 02847 Decided on April 2, 2015 Appellate Division, First Department consists of just two sentences. Really only one counts.
“The motion court properly dismissed plaintiff’s legal malpractice claims,…
Legal Malpractice and the Bulk Sale of Assets
OK, so you want to buy a business. The best advice is to get an experienced attorney, no? What happens when the attorney fails to follow the directions of Tax Law § 1141(c)? That section of the tax law is the bulk sales law, and it says that the purchaser must contact the Tax Department…
A Collegiate Life Gone Bad
Plaintiff was a graduate student at Cornell and had some problems. The Appellate Division wrote: “Petitioner, a graduate student at respondent, exchanged a series of e-mails with senior professor Davydd Greenwood until she suggested that they have a sexual affair, causing him to request that she no longer contact him. Petitioner nevertheless continued to send…
A Loss At Trial of a Legal Malpractice Case
This trial of a legal malpractice case ended up in Civil Court. It was probably there on a claim for legal fees with a legal malpractice counterclaim. It arose out of US Customs duty litigation, which sometimes takes place in the US District Courts and often wends its way to the US Supreme Court. Here,…
It Gets Even Worse For Plaintiff on Appeal
Candela Entertainment, Inc. v Davis & Gilbert, LLP 2015 NY Slip Op 02712 Decided on March 31, 2015 Appellate Division, First Department is another example of the Appellate Division applying a laser-sharp eye to the “but for” portion of a case. Here the question, on a motion to dismiss, was not whether the complaint stated…
A Scam, an Attorney, But No Legal Malpractice
Goldin v Tag Virgin Is. Inc. 2014 NY Slip Op 31308(U) May 20, 2014 Supreme Court, New York County
Docket Number: 651021/2013 Judge: Eileen Bransten is an example of overreaching. The law of legal malpractice in New York cleaves to a policy of strict privity. If you did not hire the attorney, and the…
Legal Malpractice Claim Dismissed but Overbilling Claim Remains
Client is in a divorce and really wishes the other spouse to pay legal fees. Matrimonial is settled, and the settlement allocution establishes that no attorney fees were to be paid. Client nevertheless sues for this failure as well as overbilling. Here is what happened in Tanenbaum v Molinoff 2014 NY Slip Op 04186 [118…
A Skirmish on the Way to a Battle
When a client has multiple remedies, such as personal injury, wrongful death, pain and suffering, as well as workers’ compensation, sometimes the attorneys focus on one to the detriment of another remedy. Such is what seems to have happened in Lirano v Grimble & Logudice, LLC 2014 NY Slip Op 32346(U) September 3, 2014 Supreme…