In today’s New York Law Journal Christine Simmons has a truly shocking article about a law firm discovering that one of its attorneys was sending false bills to the client. OK, this by itself is not so shocking, but the complaint also claims that the attorney created fake orders, forged the signature of a
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.
Collateral Estoppel, Attorney Fees and Legal Malpractice
Courts have found many ways to award attorney fees and force litigants to pay them. Sometimes it is on the merits and sometimes litigants are the losers on technical issues. One of the more interesting wrinkles in legal malpractice is the question of attorney fee awards and collateral estoppel of the subsequent legal malpractice case.
Urias …
Fees in Medical Malpractice Cases and Legal Malpractice
Fees in medical malpractice were lowered many years ago in hopes of curbing the "medical malpractice plague." Our view is that the AMA has found that there are an incredible number of medical malpractice mistakes, and that litigation is the only way for a damaged patient to obtain reasonable compensation.
Whether you agree with that…
Pro-Se Legal Malpractice Case Fails Its Initial Test
Plaintiff alleges that defendant "caused an action to be commenced against the plaintiff and a preclusion order to be entered against him in that action, and that they failed to assert the defenses of laches and statute of limitations in the underlying action." Unfortunately for plaintiff, the Appellate Division determined that he was unable to…
A Ponzi Scheme Leads to A Legal Malpractice Case
Everyone in this case came out badly. Attorney represented client, became friends with client, gave financial advice to client, invested with client, lost money in a Ponzi scheme with client. Now, client survives a summary judgment decision against his former friend/attorney/investment partner.
Biberaj v Acocella 2014 NY Slip Op 06165 Decided on September 17, 2014 …
Are Experts Always Needed in Legal Malpractice?
We often muse that absolute rules depress creative thinking. As an example, the well recognized rule is that legal malpractice cases always require an expert for plaintiff. However, is this true?
Board of Mgrs. of Bridge Tower Place Condominium v Starr Assoc. LLP 2013 NY Slip Op 07684 [111 AD3d 526] November 19, 2013 …
Mother-Son Litigation with Unexpected Results is not Legal Malpractice
This intra-family dispute pitted brother against brother and mother against son for control of a very close corporation. When the case was settled, one party had not successfully analyzed the potential tax liabilities and sue the attorney.
Benishai v Epstein 2014 NY Slip Op 02404 [116 AD3d 726] April 9, 2014 Appellate Division, Second…
A Remarkable Defense in Legal Malpractice
Death of attorneys and clients is inevitable, and planning for death is one thing that is expected of attorneys. in Cabrera v Collazo 2014 NY Slip Op 00622 [115 AD3d 147] February 4, 2014 Tom, J. itself arising from a wrongful death case, the attorney died just weeks before plaintiff’s time to file the wrongful…
Champerty and Judiciary Law 487
Champerty is not a subject that generates wide discussion. You won’t see a blog about it on Gawker. When the word comes up, we see a figure from a Daumier etching or a Puck cartoon. Nevertheless, the transfer of causes of action from individual to individual or to a corporate entity is higly regulated.
In…
Limited Retainers in a Legal Malpractice Setting
Client is the widow of a worker who died, either at work or at a company Christmas party. She retains the law firm to "investigate and advise her with respect to all potential claims relating to the accident of December 23, 2010 and Mr. Pena’s death." When she is no longer able to apply for…