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.
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…
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…
Three concepts are discussed in this very unusual legal malpractice case. The first is the relationship between attorneys withdrawing and their duties to clients, the second is the effect of an attorney’s death (and how he died) on the client’s interests, and the third is when the statute of limitations commences. From Cabrera v Collazo 2014…
Anyone reading the case of Charell v Brenig 2014 NY Slip Op 30304(U) January 27, 2014
Sup Ct, New York County Docket Number: 158589/12 Judge: Joan A. Madden will see the dangers in romance and how true love might turn out. A New Yorker will recognize the questions of real estate, rent stabilized apartments…
Board of Mgrs. of Bridge Tower Place Condominium v Starr Assoc. LLP 2013 NY Slip Op 7684 [111 AD3d 526] Appellate Division, First Department teaches three important lessons in a very short decision. The simple facts of the case are that defendant attorneys drafted a stipulation which stripped plaintiff of the right to amend its bylaws…
Condominiums and co-ops occupy the greatest portion of New Yorker’s real estate world. Many believe that new construction is the jewel of that grouping, and will purchase a unit well before completion. New owners depend on the reputation of the sponsor. How the building will come out is an open question, and in Board of …
An unsophisticated client, a personal injury and an attorney who does not investigate the case. These are the facts in Angeles v Aronsky 2013 NY Slip Op 02454 [105 AD3d 486] Appellate Division, First Department .
"On December 7, 2007, at approximately 3:15 p.m., plaintiff entered the front entrance of the apartment building…
The essential question in a summary judgment motion is whether after hearing all the arguments, there are still questions of fact upon which reasonable minds differ. If so, then no summary judgment. So it is in Arbor Realty Funding, LLC v Herrick, Feinstein LLP 2013 NY Slip Op 01216 [103 AD3d 576] Appellate Division, First…
Plaintiff brings a legal malpractice action based upon a series of real estate closings. His 2011 complaint strikingly fails to say when the attorney last represented him. Result? In Elmakies v Sunshine 2014 NY Slip Op 00478 Decided on January 29, 2014 Appellate Division, Second Department the case is dismissed on the statute of…
In Scekic v SL Green Realty Corp. 2014 NY Slip Op 30186(U) January 21, 2014 Sup Ct, New York County Docket Number: 113386/10 Judge: Doris Ling-Cohan a worker is injured while up on a 15 foot ladder which suddenly splits apart. He falls, and a Labor Law 240(1) case is born. but, what happened…
