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.
Big corporate client goes to Big white shoe law firm and believes that the Big litigator there will take and handle the case. It does not happen. A lesser light handles the case, and the Big Corporate client is unhappy. Now what?
Matter of Matter of G.K. Las Vegas Ltd. Partnership v Boies Schiller & …
Client is sued for trade dress infringement. "Trade Dress" are those non-functional aspects of an otherwise patented item. Even after the patent runs out, "trade dress", or the appearance of a thing, remains protected.
Client had insurance that may have covered the law suit in which it was a defendant. InUtica Cutlery Co. v …
Plaintiff sues law firm, which represented his former employer after he failed to get them to file a corrected opinion letter to facilitate removal of restrictive legends on his stock certificate. The mistake was in the opinion letter where the law firm mistakenly said it represented "Plaintiff" rather than the employer.
The Appellate Division affirms Judge…
Plaintiff is a 50% shareholder in a lucrative franchise operation, and at the end of a contract term both he and the entire franchise is faced with a difficult franchisor, which wants to upset the arrangement. An attorney is hired, and not only does the eventual franchisor-franchisee litigation end badly, but the individual plaintiff is advised to…
Plaintiff unlocks the front door to his apartment building and it knocked unconscious as soon as he enters the lobby. Three men run out with bats in hand. Is there a case against the landlord? In Angeles v Aronsky 2013 NY Slip Op 05955 Decided on September 24, 2013 Appellate Division, First Department we…
A recurring theme in defense-side publications in the legal malpractice field is the connection between attorney fee collection suits and subsequent legal malpractice counter-claims. For us, its a chicken-egg issue. Is the legal malpractice case a shameless effort to avoid payment, or did the non-payment arise because there was poor performance (read: legal malpractice)?
We…
The decision is somewhat short on facts, but we guess that this case arose froma settled landlord-tenant case in which tenant then died. His estate sued his former attorneys, and the case continues. Frankel v Vernon & Ginsburg, LLP 2012 NY Slip Op 08425 Appellate Division, First Department tells us that the AD often scrutinizes the…
In an otherwise garden or varietal attorney fee dispute with a legal malpractice defense, we ran across the "French Person" defense to attorney fees for the first time. Justice Gische, in Singer v Adler ; 2010 NY Slip Op 33439(U); Sup Ct, NY County gave it short shrift.
"This action is based upon claims…
The undisputed facts in this case are shocking. "The following facts are undisputed. In or about May 2004, plaintiff, which had a lease on the building located at 2944 3d Avenue in the Bronx , retained the law firm of Gold, Rosenblatt & Goldstein to commence a commercial summary nonpayment action against the subtenants of…
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…
