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 crane topples at East 51st Street, and wrecks the development of a big building. In the fallout, three legal malpractice law suits ensue, with many big-name attorneys suing or being sued. How do the cases all fit together for trial?
Arbor Realty Funding, LLC v Herrick, Feinstein LLP 2013 NY Slip Op 51210(U) Decided…
What happens when two deserving parties vie over the same zero-sum pot of money? In this case it is a hard-working attorney with a charging lien and the children in a child-support proceeding upstate. In Piccarreto v Mura 2013 NY Slip Op 23241 Decided on July 3, 2013 Supreme Court, Monroe County, Judge Dollinger writes a…
Up until now, we had always thought the question was answered and no was no longer in doubt. One need not exhaust all appeals before starting a legal malpractice case. In Grace v Law
2013 NY Slip Op 05383 Released on July 19, 2013 Appellate Division, Fourth Department we were surprised to see the…
Sometimes, Supreme Court of the State of New York acts like an appellate court in legal malpractice cases. In Pasquale v Heppt 2013 NY Slip Op 31560(U) July 15, 2013
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 112890/2011 Judge: Doris Ling-Cohan we see one such example. Note that plaintiff argues that a decision of…
Violation of a disciplinary rule alone is insufficient to uphold a legal malpractice cause of action. We see, in Schlam Stone & Dolan, LLP v Poch 2013 NY Slip Op 51176(U) Decided on July 9, 2013 Supreme Court, New York County Hagler, J. how a cause of action for legal malpractice founders on the…
Plaintiff owes three banks, and one of them is really trying to recover its money. Plaintiff recently transferred his home ownership to his wife. Plaintiff goes to an attorney to discuss how to shield an upcoming inheritance from his father. The attorney is willing to take two of the three cases, but not the third…
Some of the defendants ended up in Federal prison, and some ended up being sued. Plaintiff ended up owing on a mortgage and not owning the house. It’s all fallout of the mortgage crisis and now will go to trial. Defendant attorney Dash was suspended for 5 years and the AD found that he co…
Caputo v Palermo, Palermo, & Tuohy, P.C.; 2013 NY Slip Op 31543(U) July 2, 2013
Sup Ct, Suffolk County Docket Number: 08-45481 Judge: Arthur G. Pitts is a case that could support a whole years trial/practice class. It discusses in sharp detail issues of the standards of CPLR 3211, Legal Malpractice, Notices of Claim…
What would happen if it were easy to sue the other side’s attorney? Presumably, after every litigation, the losing party would sue the winning party’s attorney. This is not a desirable goal, because it would simply lead to double/treble endless litigation. For this reason, the rule of privity requires that except in the most extreme…
An action to recover damages for malpractice, other than medical, dental or podiartric malpractice, regardless of whether the underlying theory is based in contract or in tort" is subject to a 3 year statute. More importantly, unless fraud is truly independent of, and not incidental to the professional representation, it too will be subject to…
