It was not said by Lord Acton that control of the bank account corrupts, and that absolute control of it corrupts absolutely, but United States Fire Ins. Co. v Raia 2014 NY Slip Op 00987 Decided on February 13, 2014 Appellate Division, Second Department does show that guardians who control their ward’s bank accounts can
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.
Lots of Fact Questions in this Legal Malpractice Case
One attorney represents a group of tenants / tenants-in-common in a construction project that runs afoul of the Department of Transportation in NYC. The sticking point was whether a retaining wall, which the project sought to move was on City or private property. In Wadsworth Condos LLC v Dollinger Gonski & Grossman 2014 NY Slip…
Fraud, LLPs, Individual Liability and Legal Malpractice
What is the difference between legal malpractice in tort and legal malpractice in contract, and how might an individual attorney in a LLP be liable for the fraud of another attorney? Salazar v Sacco & Fillas, LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 00980 Decided on February 13, 2014 Appellate Division, Second Department has a simple…
A Hodgepodge of Legal Malpractice and Conflicts Issues
W.S. Corp. v Cullen and Dykman LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 30353(U) February 5, 2014 Sup Ct, New York County Docket Number: 654176/12 Judge: Marcy S. Friedman is a CPLR 3211 decision based upon a large number of claims. Basically, its sibling v. sibling, each of which have enjoyed the benefits of a trust and…
A Huge Loss, and a Search for The Money
Pope Inv. II LLC v Belmont Partners, LLC 2014 NY Slip Op 30349(U) February 4, 2014 Sup Ct, New York County Docket Number: 651479/12 Judge: Jeffrey K. Oing is the story of a huge investment, a huge loss, and the search for missing monies.
"A Securities Purchase Agreement, dated April 14, 2008, documented the AAXT…
The Tipping Point in a Legal Malpractice Case
In a legal malpractice case worth more than $60 Million, is it possible that the testimony of a single witness at a deposition can make the essential difference?
In Nomura Asset Capital Corp. v Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 00954
Decided on February 13, 2014 Appellate Division, First Department Richter, J.
More Fraud and Legal Malpractice Combos
Yesterday, we started to discuss how fraud and legal malpractice can exist side by side and not be "duplicitive." In Johnson v Rose 2014 NY Slip Op 30262(U) January 23, 2014 Sup Ct, NY County
Docket Number: 652075/2011 Judge: Lawrence K. Marks we saw how plaintiffs claimed both fraud and legal malpractice in the tax…
Tax Shelters, Fraud and Legal Malpractice
Heirs to the Johnson & Johnson fortune decided that dividends and distributions were not sufficient, and entered into a tax shelter arrangement. Naturally, it was disastrous, and ended in litigation. In Johnson v Rose 2014 NY Slip Op 30262(U) January 23, 2014 Sup Ct, NY County
Docket Number: 652075/2011 Judge: Lawrence K. Marks we see…
A Remarkable Case (Part 3)
Finally, in the case of Cabrera v Collazo 2014 NY Slip Op 00622 Decided on February 4, 2014
Appellate Division, First Department Tom, J.
How does the death of an attorney affect the relationship and the statute of limitations for the client’s case?
" Expansion of the record on a "more embracive and…
A Remarkable Case (Part 2)
In Cabrera v Collazo 2014 NY Slip Op 00622 Decided on February 4, 2014 Appellate Division, First Department Tom, J. the question of when the statute of limitations commences and the effect of the death of an attorney.
"In late September, Tanzman filed a certificate of lateness with Surrogate’s Court stating that "another…