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.
Judiciary Law 487 is a ancient attorney deceit statute which says, in essence, that it is a violation (and a misdemeanor) for an attorney to engage in deceit. The statute is subject to the requirement to prove proximate cause as well as ascertainable damages.
in Mizuno v Nunberg 2014 NY Slip Op 07481 Decided on…
We’ve noted that more legal malpractice cases seem to be dismissed on CPLR 3211 grounds than those in other fields of the law. Endless Ocean, LLC v Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo 2014 NY Slip Op 00087 [113 AD3d 587] January 8, 2014 Appellate Division, Second Department looks like on of them. …
We’ve said that legal malpractice issues are ubiquitous, and omnipresent. That’s just another way of saying that where there are lawyers, and where they practice their human crafts, there will be mistakes and shortcomings. This was true before the Magna Carta and is true today.
One example of the evolving nature of legal malpractice issues…
Doctor is sued for medical malpractice, along with fellow doctor. MLMIC, the largest insurer in the field settles the case for $ 3.2 Million. Doctor’s liability is covered by the Carrier. She sues the carrier and its attorney, Carter Conboy in Kaufman v Medical Liab. Mut. Ins. Co. 2014 NY Slip Op 07398 Decided…
The statute of limitations is an extraordinarily powerful concept. After a specific period of time, it’s just too late to sue, even though the defendant was totally and wholly wrong. It’s just too late! Its a completely arbitrary period of time, too.
So, courts have ameliorated the hardship from time to time. One way of…
Client hires attorney and, let’s say, the relationship sours. Client moves on to attorney 2 and there is a bad outcome to the litigation. Who is responsible (if anyone)? Is it attorney 1 or attorney 2 or both?
Tooma v Grossbarth 2014 NY Slip Op 07347 Decided on October 29, 2014 Appellate Division, Second Department…
Many lawyers are disciplined, and some are disbarred over the conversion of their ward’s funds. Guardianships are necessary for those who cannot manage their own finances, and for the most part are beneficial to the wards. Sometimes, however, the existence of money just sitting there can be too much of a temptation. So it was…
Deep v Boies 2014 NY Slip Op 07215 Decided on October 23, 2014 Appellate Division, Third Department is the story of a plaintiff who lost an early start-up web site/application called "Aimster." His claim is that it was taken from him by his attorney, the very powerful David Boies.
When Plaintiff sued Boies and the…
In a case with complex legal issues, are attorneys given an extended range in which to make "decisions" rather than "departures"? It seems so. What might be a "mistake" in another setting is a "judgment call" here.
M & R Ginsburg, LLC v Segel, Goldman, Mazzotta & Siegel, P.C. 2014 NY Slip Op 07227 …
It’s THREE years, and not a day more. In legal malpractice, no matter whether your claim is based on negligence or breach of contract CPLR 214(6) states that one has 3 years in which to bring the action.
Tsafatinos v Law Off. of Sanford F. Young, P.C. 2014 NY Slip Op 07145 Decided on…
