The Business Judgment rule protects condo and coop boards from many claims. Chief among them are the day-to-day decisions on how to run the building. Do we fix the elevators? Do we change the boiler? Shall we give the super a raise? Owners who are unhappy have a very limited number of options, as is
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.
Perhaps Showing Up For the Deposition Was the Better Choice
In this legal malpractice action Estate of Alston v Ramseur 2015 NY Slip Op 00490 Decided on January 21, 2015 Appellate Division, Second Department the attorney is defending against a claim that there was a departure from good practice which proximately damaged the client. In defense, the attorney allowed a conditional order to be…
Legal Malpractice in the Majors
Clients sometimes exaggerate or have high hopes about their damages. They sometimes do so in order to interest attorneys in taking their legal malpractice case. Often, they will inform the potential attorney that the damages are in the MILLIONS! Sometimes it’s true. However, this story from the New York Law Journal today eclipses any of those…
The Difference Between “A” Proximate Cause and “The” Proximate Cause
The 183 day rule in NYS taxation bobs to the surface from time to time. In this accounting malpractice case, where plaintiff resided makes a difference of about $1 million in tax. Client relied upon the CPAs explanation of how the 183 day rule is applied, to his detriment. Was that advice the [or a]…
One Motion Succeeds, One Fails in a Legal Malpractice Case
Summonses and Complaints served at the very last minute are a study in tension and worry. With good reason, practitioners should fear the NY rules on service of pleadings. Has the process server found a person of discretion? Is in hand service good enough for the case? Has the after-mailing been performed correctly? Sometimes, it is not…
Professional Negligence and Bernie Madoff
It seems that everyone was in on the Barnie Madoff delusion, including Unions in Upstate New York. How the IBEW got involved with Madoff is not stated. However, they lost enough money to sue their CPAs. In Board of Trustees of Ibew Local 43 v D’Arcangelo & Co., LLP
2015 NY Slip Op 00113 Decided…
In Pari Delicto and Professional Negligence
A client is free to sue his professional, whether it be an attorney, an accountant or even a doctor. But, if the client has "dirty hands" or has participated in some untoward act, he may be blocked from pursuing the case. This is the principal of "in pari delicto."
In an accounting setting, Schwartz v …
Heartbreak in the Subtext of a Legal Malpractice Case
The legal principals are straightforward, and the prose is cool and scholarly, but the subtext to this legal malpractice case is heartbreaking. Parent against child; economic interests tearing apart families.
Take a look at Cusimano v Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 04428 [118 AD3d 542] June 17, 2014  …
No Legal Malpractice In This Estate Matter
Plaintiff lacked two elements of a successful legal malpractice case. The two missing elements were the "but for" aspect which requires that "but for" the mistake of the attorney there would have been a better outcome for the estate. The second missing element was ascertainable damages. Here, the estate had to prove that there would…
Settlement Negotiations Immune from Judiciary Law 487 Application
Judiciary Law 487 is the ancient attorney deceit law. It arose just years after the Magna Carta. During the period between 1267 and today, attorneys have constantly been negotiating cases for their clients. Here, in Wailes v Tel Networks USA, LLC 2014 NY Slip Op 02861 [116 AD3d 625]
April 24, 2014 Appellate Division…