It is unfortunate to see a legal malpractice case be dismissed on technical grounds. Here,in Cullin v Spiess 2014 NY Slip Op 07975 Decided on November 19, 2014 the Appellate Division, Second Department found that Plaintiff’s summary judgment motion lacked an affidavit of a person with knowledge, and that there was insufficient opposition
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.
A Fee Claim, An Arbitration, A Lawsuit, A Counterclaim for Legal Malpractice
One piece of advice repeated endlessly at CLEs is that attorney fee cases created legal malpractice counterclaims. In Jeffrey M. Rosenblum, P.C. v Casano 2014 NY Slip Op 51629(U) Decided on November 19, 2014 District Court Of Nassau County, First District Fairgrieve, J. we see a sterling example of this problem. Attorney lost attorney…
Legal Malpractice and A Storybook Divorce
Reading between the lines,Manus v Flamm 2013 NY Slip Op 07683 [111 AD3d 525] November 19, 2013 Appellate Division, First Department sounds like a 1930’s romantic divorce movie. Husband marries glamorous starlet, gives her beaucoup jewelery and then, The Divorce. Starlet is caught between Husband and another woman. His mother? Anyway…
The complaint alleges…
False Answers on an Information Subpoena? Not Judiciary Law 487
Courts reserve the application of Judiciary Law 487, the Attorney Deceit Law to very few cases. Put another way, courts are loathe to apply it. In Kuruwa v 130E. 18 Owners Corp. 2014 NY Slip Op 06880 Decided on October 9, 2014 the Appellate Division, First Department merely sweeps the question away in a…
It’s Almost Always the “But For” Part
Client buys some gas stations and believes that it was unfairly kept from sharing in some condemnation awards on the property that mostly (or all) went to seller. Client sues attorneys for not obtaining the unpaid condemnation awards. Defendants claim it was strategy. Result?
Attorney Fees Upon Termination and Judiciary Law 487
Here is the story of an attorney who is retained to commence an underinsured motorist arbitration against an auto insurance carrier. Apparently he makes the claim for arbitration, becomes suspended from the practice of law, (later disbarred) and watches while another attorney settles the claim for the clients. is he due a fee, and did…
Collateral Estoppel and Judiciary Law 487
A theme that is becoming somewhat popular is that of a Judiciary law 487 claim when counsel moves to be relieved. Often, the attorney uses stock phrases (refusal to pay expenses, conflict over strategy, inability to communicate) while the plaintiff urges that the attorney is making this up in order to be rid of a…
Judiciary Law 487 and Matrimonial Allegations
One may not sue the opponent’s attorney for legal malpractice, except for a very few and limited number of exceptions, yet the temptation to do so must be very high in matrimonial cases. One tactic in custody proceedings is the false accusation of misconduct. The wrongfully accused spouse would love to sue the other spouse’s…
Some But Not All of the Damages Remain in Play
Evedentaily, defendants made a well-intentioned but insufficient motion for summary judgment. In this wrongful eviction case, the landlord turned to its attorney and made a legal malpractice claim. Defendants moved to dismiss, but in Morad Assoc., LLC v Jay Sung Lee 2013 NY Slip Op 08204 [112 AD3d 463] December 10, 2013 Appellate Division, First…
Duplication of Causes of Action and Election of Remedies
The typical triumvirate of claims in a legal malpractice setting is Legal Malpractice, Breach of Contract and Breach of Fiduciary Duty. Defendants almost always move to dismiss the second and third claims on the basis that they duplicate the legal malpractice claim and must be dismissed as "duplicitive."