Jingyi Ni v Shenlaw, LLC 2024 NY Slip Op 51148(U) Decided on August 1, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Lebovits, J. is a fascinating case. To start it is not really a legal malpractice case, and might have been brought for the purpose of saving an EB5 immigration application rather than for money damages.
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.
Law Firms Love Arbitration
Law firms frequently insert arbitration clauses into their retainer agreements, and require arbitration of all claims concerning potential malpractice. In an unusual setting, the clients sue their attorneys for failing to tell them to basically do the same thing,
Signature Cleaning Servs., Inc. v Grimaldi 2024 NY Slip Op 32966(U) August 23, 2024 Supreme…
One Side Gets a Second Chance, But Still No Summary Judgment
Reem Contr. v Altschul & Altschul 2024 NY Slip Op 32915(U) August 19, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 104202/2011 Judge: David B. Cohen presents the interesting question of whether a party may make a second motion for summary judgment, and if so, under what circumstances. Here, Defendants are denied a…
Legal Malpractice As A Last Resort
Csutkai v Baisley 2024 NY Slip Op 32884(U) August 15, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 151083/2020 Judge: Debra A. James is an odd example of blaming the attorney where the attorney never agreed to take on certain work.
“This action arises out of a promissory note, dated August 17, 2007…
Subsequent Cases Do Not Always Make New Law
In Jobar Holding Corp. v Halio 2024 NY Slip Op 32650(U) July 10, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 655689/2017 Judge: Joel M. Cohen, plaintiff attempted to use a subsequent case decision to revive a dismissed case via amendment, The attempt failed.
“By order dated September 23, 2019, the Court (Scarpulla…
Real Estate and Legal Malpractice on Madison Avenue
Slifka v Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP 2024 NY Slip Op 32788(U) August 9, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 155742/2023 Judge: Melissa A. Crane is yet another in the vast universe of legal malpractice cases associated with real estate, and in this case in a big way. Joseph…
Dismissal Reversed After No Arbitration
Villaver v Paglinawan 2024 NY Slip Op 04159 Decided on August 7, 2024
Appellate Division, Second Department concerns a situation where plaintiffs sued defendants who moved to dismiss based upon an arbitration clause. The arbitration was closed when Plaintiff said he could not afford the arbitration and Defendants did not respond.
“Thereafter, the plaintiff commenced…
Accountants Win Dismissal of Case
Gordon v Vladislav Tsirkin CPA & Co., LLC 2024 NY Slip Op 03682 Decided on July 3, 2024 Appellate Division, Second Department is one of those appellate cases where the Court basically did not like the complaint. The decision uses the general language of a “failure to sufficiently allege” the claims. No particular facts are…
Judiciary Law 487 Claim Successfully Stated
Peck v Milbank LLP 2024 NY Slip Op 32596(U) July 29, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 152290/2022 Judge: Andrew Borrok describes why the claim for violation of Judiciary Law 487 resisted a dismissal motion.
“The defendants are not however entitled to dismissal of the claim sounding in violation of Judiciary…
An Unusual Attorney Fee Arbitration Arrangement
Jones Law Firm, P.C. v Keep Healthy, Inc. 2024 NY Slip Op 32519(U) July 15, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 653385/2023 Judge: Kathleen Waterman-Marshall is the story of a law firm which has a captive arbitration firm and requires arbitrations for attorney fee claims to be arbitrated before the…