Last post, we discussed Gad v Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 34357(U) December 20, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 156841/2021 Judge: Margaret A. Chan where siblings fight long and hard over a very lucrative business, resulting in years of litigation, costly attorney fees, and the
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.
Standing is Established But Damages Are Too Speculative
In Gad v Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 34357(U) December 20, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 156841/2021
Judge: Margaret A. Chan Siblings fight long and hard over a very lucrative business, resulting in years of litigation, costly attorney fees, and the ultimate try at selling…
The New Poster Child for Non-Privity Legal Malpractice
Strict privity of contract requirements make legal malpractice different from all other types of litigation. Even in products liability, which once rested completely and solely upon privity of contract as a prerequisite, things have loosened. Betz v Blatt, 2022 NY Slip Op 07430 Decided on December 28, 2022 Appellate Division, Second Department, which…
They Did Not Oppose the Motion and Did Not Argue the Motion, yet…
In Richmond Hospitality, LLC v Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman, Formato, Ferrera, Wolf & Carone, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 51310(U) Decided on December 20, 2022
Supreme Court, Richmond County Castorina Jr., J. we see a situation unique to legal malpractice cases. Early on the Court will dismiss, determining that the complaint cannot state a cause…
Intentionally False and Egregious
Schnur v Balestriere 2022 NY Slip Op 05297 [208 AD3d 1117] September 27, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department is an uncommon result in a CPLR 3211 motion to dismiss a Judiciary Law § 487 claim. The First Department finds that the statements made were not merely “unfounded allegations” but were sufficiently alleged to be deceitful…
A Breach of Contract Claim Remains, But no Judiciary Law 487
Kaufman v Boies Schiller Flexner, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 06883 Decided on December 06, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department is a terse decision which modifies Supreme Court’s complete dismissal of all claims. Now, a breach of contract claim remains. Judiciary Law § 487 is out.
“The complaint stated a limited cause of action for…
A judiciary Law 487 Claim Granted on Default
Successfully pleaded Judiciary Law § 487 claims are not a given. Default judgments are even rarer, but here is one example. In Ezra Huber & Assoc., P.C. v Genevieve Lane Lopresti
2022 NY Slip Op 06910 Decided on December 7, 2022 Appellate Division, Second Department the default judgment was affirmed.
“The plaintiff commenced this action…
Legal Malpractice Claim? Yes Fraud? No
Federal Ins. Co. v Lester Schwab Katz & Dwyer, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 07149 Decided on December 15, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department is a case by the insurer versus its attorney arising from what was most likely a personal injury claim. Overlooking the actual email sent by the law firm, Plaintiff sued for…
Pro-Se Litigation and Judiciary Law 487
Pro-se litigation often raises difficult questions of whether attorneys (relying on regular practices) have said something deceitfully, or whether the Pro-se simply does not understand how litigation procedure works. Delo v O’Connor 2022 NY Slip Op 34135(U) December 7, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 652721/2022 Judge: Arlene P. Bluth is…
The Court Orders a Hearing on Legal Malpractice and Dismisses Everything
Belair & Evans LLP v Rizzo 2022 NY Slip Op 06986 Decided on December 08, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department is an example of the Court taking things into its own hands and directing a show cause order why a counterclaim should not be dismissed. Then the Court dismissed all the counterclaims.
“Order, Supreme Court,…