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.
Plaintiff hires attorney 1 and after a while begins to court Attorney 2. Meanwhile, back at home, no one is looking after affairs, and the litigations begin to unravel. Who is at fault?
Devonshire Surgical Facility, LLC v Law Offs. of Leo Tekiel, 2013 NY Slip Op 31441(U)
July 3, 2013 Supreme Court, New York…
From time to time we muse over whether legal malpractice cases are unfairly treated or exposed to a higher degree of scrutiny. We wonder whether the fact that the rules for legal malpractice are structured by attorneys, are applied by attorneys and deal only with attorneys creates an institutional bias.
Barnave v Davis 2013…
Attorneys and clients have a unique compensation arrangement in contingent fees. It’s almost unheard of for people to get paid only on success. Doctors get paid for treating you, not for curing you. Plumbers get paid for showing up, and then get paid more for doing the work. Lawyers often work on contingent plans where…
Today’s New York Law Journal article by Brendan Pierson highlights the New York fee dispute apparatus. Either attorney or client can trigger an arbitration, and if either is dissatisfied with the result, can request a de novo court case. What is fascinating about this case is the lack of caution and apparent bad judgment on…
The confluence of money, crime and high-stakes litigation is titillating. When we read about people paying $108 in restitution, then facing RICO claims from the mother-in-law, and then being sued for deceit under Judiciary Law 487, it seems like a movie.
In today’sNew York Law Journal, Andrew Keshner writes about Ira Lee Sorkin, Judd…
There is no "discovery" rule in New York for the commencement of the legal malpractice statute of limitations. As the Court in Elstein v Phillips Lytle, LLP 2013 NY Slip Op 05132 Released on July 5, 2013 Appellate Division, Fourth Department points out, "A cause of action for legal malpractice accrues when the malpractice is…
We often wonder whether legal malpractice cases are treated with a type of royal exasperation by judges. Often the feeling in the air is that legal malpractice cases maybe should not be brought, or that it’s somewhat shameful to bring one, or that perhaps attorneys are due a little extra consideration. We wonder if that’s…
In New York City condominiums are a rich source of litigation. At the ownership level, one sees litigation over the buying and selling; at a personal injury level, one sees slips and falls. In the construction of the buildings, negligence and indemnification between general contractors and subs is an ongoing field of law. Here, in…
While we understand the principal, it is nevertheless shocking to read a case in which the defendant attorney admits that they blew the statute of limitations, but argue that plaintiff had no case anyway. It just seems wrong, somehow.
In Hagensen v Ferro, Kuba, Mangano, Skylar, Gacovino & Lake, P.C. 2013 NY Slip Op 04980
Decided…
The interplay of bankruptcy and personal injury or legal malpractice cases is complicated. Basically, once one files a Chapter 7 petition, all assets, including the penny in petitioner’s pocket becomes part of the Bankruptcy estate. That estate includes any personal injury claims, and even any future legal malpractice claims. If they are listed in the…
