SS Marks LLC v Morrison Cohen LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 31030(U) April 16, 2014 Sup Ct, New York County Docket Number: 650049/2009 Judge: O. Peter Sherwood is an example of how a likely sounding legal malpractice case can be lost on a series of e-mails. Here, plaintiff’s plausible claims are completely undone by
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.
Franchisee Loses Drug Store Case and Loses Attorney Fee Case
Attorney is hired to defend a case. What is the standard of care if the case is "unwinnable"? Justice Jaffe of Supreme Court, New York County discusses what happens when a franchisee who has signed personal guarantees falls behind in royalty payments to the franchisor. It’s not pretty.
In Pu v Mitsopoulos 2014 NY Slip…
A Short Letter to the Client Would Have Made a World of Difference
Was it strategy or mistake? Was the Warning given or not? Was the Attorney negligent or did he do a good job? These are the questions that are daily raised in legal malpractice cases. Sometimes, as in Mateo v Silver & Silver, LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 30986(U) April 15, 2014
Supreme Court, New York…
Try As They Might, Summary Judgment Just Isn’t There
We believe that a greater proportion of legal malpractice cases are subject to motions for summary judgment, and that more decisions to dismiss are granted than in other specialties. In Kempf v Magida 2014 NY Slip Op 02410 Decided on April 9, 2014 Appellate Division, Second Department the merely unusual happened. Summary judgment was…
The Attorney Represents the Executor; Who Represents the Estate?
An estate is left to two sisters. An uncle is named executor. He loots the estate for more than $1 million, and is surcharged and suspended. New executor sues the attorneys representing uncle and the estate for the losses.
Betz v Blatt 2014 NY Slip Op 02554 Decided on April 16, 2014 Appellate Division…
The Case Lives On, But Not For This Plaintiff
Here is a case about the attempt to re-make a movie. It did not go well. Plaintiff had invested $ 4.5 million in order to put together, or remake, or work with "Dance Cuba" She retained Davis & Gilbert to handle the transfer of ownership. The transfer went well, but someone forgot to take care of…
A Legal Malpractice Case is Dismissed for Lack of Essentials
Here is a familiar scenario. Plaintiff litigates case for a period of time. Something goes wrong, or it appears that some element is missing from the mix, and the case is settled. Better settled than lost, but when that happens, the question becomes, why was it settled. Was it a good move, or was it required…
Did This Legal Malpractice Case Fail For the Same Reason the Underlying Case Failed?
We often see a "pot and the kettle" issue in legal malpractice cases. Example: Plaintiff trips and falls, and her attorney sues the City. City successfully shows that it had no big apple notice, and that it did not create the defect in the street. Plaintiff then sues in legal malpractice arguing that photos show…
A Pro-se Legal Malpractice Action Gone Wrong
The irony of mistakes made in a legal malpractice action, which of course pleads that mistakes were made in the underlying case is not lost on us. Pro-se legal malpractice litigation is a rich source of examples. Klein v Octobre 2014 NY Slip Op 30907(U) April 7, 2014 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number:…
A Pro-se Legal Malpractice Action Gone Wrong
The irony of mistakes made in a legal malpractice action, which of course pleads that mistakes were made in the underlying case is not lost on us. Pro-se legal malpractice litigation is a rich source of examples. Klein v Octobre 2014 NY Slip Op 30907(U) April 7, 2014 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number:…