AQ Asset Mgt. LLC v Levine 2014 NY Slip Op 30489(U) February 27, 2014 Sup Ct, New York County Docket Number: 652367/2010 Judge: Shirley Werner Kornreich is the story of a big deal gone bad, and how that failure devolves into looking for suspects. Put another way, the clients are now looking to see
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.
A Missing Ladder, A Legal Malpractice Case
Sometimes legal malpractice cases are an exercise in looking back. Plaintiffs look backwards to what happened at the first trial, or what went wrong years ago. Burbige v Siben & Ferber
2014 NY Slip Op 01426 Decided on March 5, 2014 Appellate Division, Second Department is an example. Plaintiff fell from a broken ladder at…
Is It Enough For A Good Legal Malpractice Case?
The Client comes in and tells you, "They didn’t know the case! They didn’t prepare! They lost the case!" Is that enough for a good legal malpractice case? A demonstrated lack of skill and a failure to prepare for litigation might seem proper fodder for a legal malpractice case, it’s not always enough.
In Chibcha …
Here, It’s Not Simply the Departure, It’s The “But For” Connection
Plaintiff must always prove that departures from good and accepted practice by the defendant were a proximate cause of the injury. Note that there need be no proof that the departure was the proximate cause. In Arbor Realty Funding, LLC v Herrick, Feinstein LLP 2013 NY Slip Op 01216
Appellate Division, First Department we see…
Claims Fail, One by One in this Pro-Se v. Pro-Se Lawsuit
Plaintiff was charged with violating the Cornell University Campus Code by allegedly harassing a professor. From there on in her legal arc was consistently downward. She hired defendant attorneys to represent her in a CPLR Art. 78 and in a Title IX claim. Both were unsuccessful. She then sued all the attorneys, both individually and as…
It’s Sue and Be Sued in a Mega-Huge Legal Malpractice Case
In today’s New York Law Journal Christine Simmons reports on how the big boys play at legal malpractice. Basically, it’s client with at least $1B in play hires Proskauer to advise them on a new borrowing/lending plan, which goes awry. Lots of taxes become due, and finger pointing ensues. The news in this dog bites…
A Pro-Se Legal Malpractice Win in Supreme Court and in the Appellate Division
Reading decisions of the Appellate Division in legal malpractice cases involving attorneys on both sides often shows the AD dismissing the complaint on "but for" grounds. The AD will look closely at the underlying transactions which led to the underlying litigation, and will decide whether there would have been a better or different outcome.
In…
They Never Met, Yet The Attorneys Represented Them Anyways
Schlam Stone & Dolan, LLP v Poch 2014 NY Slip Op 30415(U) February 17, 2014 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 105769/11 Judge Shlomo S. Hagler presents the question of whether an attorney may be hired to represent an entity, and then represent the individual officers or members, without their knowledge. What happens…
A Personal Injury Case and A Legal Malpractice Case Side by Side
Personal injury and legal malpractice cases have many strong bonds. Because a sizable portion of the litigation world is devoted to personal injuries (on both the plaintiff’s and defendant’s side), one correctly expects significant legal malpractice litigation after-wards. How the legal malpractice case proceeds along with or after the PI case is a not well…
Really, I had Nothing to Do With This Legal Malpractice!
Real estate broker is asked to find a buyer. Broker presents a buyer, but no deal ensues. Broker papers the transaction and sits back. Later transaction goes through and Broker eventually seeks commission. Sellers attorney is sued. Is he liable?
Land Man Realty, Inc. v Faraone 2012 NY Slip Op 08218 Appellate Division, Third Department…