Attorneys rely upon their legal malpractice insurance for stability and backup. Clients rely upon the attorney’s legal malpractice insurance for safety and reassurance that when their human attorney makes a mistake, there will be someone who steps in and protects them. What happens when the insurance company turns rogue?
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.
Second Attorney Out of a University Harrassment Legal Malpractice Case
The first set of attorneys obtained dismissal in 2014. Hyman v. Schwartz, 2014 NY Slip Op 01362 [114 AD3d 1110]. “In August 2007, plaintiff—then a Cornell University graduate student—was charged with violating the University’s Campus Code of Conduct by allegedly harassing a professor. Following disciplinary proceedings, the University’s Hearing Board sustained the harassment charge…
Summary Judgment Denied, More Discovery Permitted in a Legal Malpractice Case
We must say that we’re puzzled over the Appellate Division’s reference to a CPLR 3211(a) motion “to dismiss the complaint insofar as asserted against them, or, in the alternative, for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against them, or to compel additional discovery.” Portilla v Law Offs. of Arcia & Flanagan 2015 NY…
What is the Requisite Pattern Necessary for a Good Judiciary Law 487 Case?
USHA SOHA Terrace, LLC v Robinson Brog Leinwand Greene Genovese & Gluck, P.C. 2014 NY Slip Op 31813(U), July 9, 2014, Supreme Court, New York County , Judge: Melvin L. Schweitzer is a fairly typical Judiciary Law 487 case. It is a legal malpractice and Judiciary Law 487 case in which plaintiffs assert direct…
No Expert? Motion to Dismiss Denied
Issues that are beyond the "ken" of ordinary jurors require expert testimony says the First Department in Wadsworth Condos, LLC v Dollinger Gonski & Grossman 2014 NY Slip Op 00930 [114 AD3d 487] February 13, 2014 Appellate Division, First Department.
"Plaintiff’s belatedly asserted grounds for alleging legal malpractice may be entertained since they involve no…
Judiciary Law 487 Relief “Not Lightly Given”
Judiciary Law 487, the attorney-deceit statute, part of the common law, is reserved by the Appellate Division for really really bad conduct. It is not "lightly given." While proof does not require "clear and convincing" evidence, in practice it is rarely granted, and overwhelmingly dismissed by the Courts. So it is in Chowaiki & Co. …
A Legal Malpractice Case Lost on the “But For” Rule
As we discussed yesterday, courts are eager to dismiss legal malpractice cases, early in the case or late, on the question of whether Client can show that "but for" the attorney’s negligence there would have been a better economic outcome for the client. Mackey Reed Elec., Inc. v Morrone & Assoc., P.C. 2015 NY Slip…
Too Quick to Dismiss a Ledgal Malpractice Case
We believe that a higher percentage of legal malpractice cases suffer dismissal, either at the answer or at summary judgment than do other forms of litigation in negligence. Admittedly, we have but anecdotal evidence. Nevertheless, Facie Libre Assoc. I, L.L.C. v Littman Krooks, L.L.P.
2015 NY Slip Op 01389 Decided on February 17, 2015 Appellate…
Continuous Representation and the “Nice Relationship”
Clients get the benefit of an extended statute of limitations under the principal of continuous representation. It arose out of "continuing treatment" in the medical malpractice world. In legal malpractice, there must be some evidence of a "continuing relationship of trust and confidence" between client and attorney. Absent that, the statute begins on the day…
Real Estate and Legal Malpractice
It’s a well known meme that real estate is close to the heart of New Yorkers. "Location, location, location" is a phrase bandied about even by schoolchildren. So, it’s no surprise that real estate transactions may figure in a legal malpractice setting. Here, in Rojas v Paine 2015 NY Slip Op 01258 Decided on February…