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.
Borges v Placeres 2014 NY Slip Op 08910 Decided on December 23, 2014 Appellate Division, First Department is a compendium of mistakes in a legal malpractice. This case was tried in Civil Court, was appealed to the Appellate Term, and from there to the Appellate Division. Plaintiff lost in all spheres.
Mistakes: Failure to raise…
Just as in Legal Malpractice, the principal of continuing representation tolls the three year statute of limitations in accounting malpractice. The rules of burden shift from defendant to plaintiff are similar too.
Schwartz v Leaf, Salzman, Manganelli, Pfiel, & Tendler, LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 08823 Decided on December 17, 2014 Appellate Division, Second…
Litigation, and legal malpractice litigation in particular is subject a vast number of technical rules, any of which can upset an otherwise meritorious case. Attorneys make mistakes in these technical rules, hence legal malpractice. Pro-se litigants make even more mistakes. Hyman v Schwartz 2014 NY Slip Op 33274(U) December 17, 2014 Supreme Court, New…
In automobile accident cases, injured parties are due no-fault coverage and payments. Insurance companies have the right to refuse to pay for medical treatment which is unrelated to the accident, and often refuse to pay. Sometimes, the insurance company is correct,and sometimes it is incorrect. The injured party’s remedy is a no-fault arbitration. A no-fault…
Christine Simmons in the New York Law Journal reports today on Stock v Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 33171(U) December 5, 2014 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 651250/13 Judge: Melvin L. Schweitzer. The case raises a "novel" question of intra-law office attorney privilege, and whether the client is…
This case illustrates the potential mess a law firm can get itself into when it allows employees and their families to do business with them. This particular case, Rodolico v Rubin & Licatesi, P.C.
2014 NY Slip Op 01308 [114 AD3d 923] February 26, 2014 Appellate Division, Second Department led to legal malpractice litigation, commercial…
Many Judiciary Law 487 claims are challenged by motion before an answer is filed. A high percentage of the motions are granted. Mazel 315 W. 35th LLC v 315 W. 35th Assoc. LLC
2014 NY Slip Op 06252 [120 AD3d 1106] September 23, 2014 Appellate Division, First Department is one case in which the motion was denied.…
In a textbook example of the reason for social policy. Tenore v Kantrowitz, Goldhamer & Graifman, P.C. 2014 NYSlipOp 06811 October 8, 2014 Appellate Division, Second Department shows why privity is an essential part of the legal malpractice world. Were litigants able to sue their opponent’s attorney, there would be a legal malpractice case…
There is now a formal split between the First and Second Departments on the appropriate statute of limitations for Judiciary Law 487. The second department recently determined that if the JL 487 claim is made in a case with a legal malpractice claim, then the statute of limitaitons is 3 years pursuant to CPLR 214(6). …
Police officer is out sick. Police Department rule is that you must stay in your home, and they go to great lengths to check up on those officers. In Pannone v Silberstein 2014 NY Slip Op 03944 [118 AD3d 413] June 3, 2014 Appellate Division, First Department the officer was subject to a disciplinary…
