Kidron v Suris & Assoc., P.C. 2024 NY Slip Op 02503 Decided on May 07, 2024
Appellate Division, First Department reminds us that there are vast differences between the law in the First Department and the law in the Second Department, both of which are in the State of New York. Why this could be
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.
Didn’t Start A Case, Still in the Case
Scott v Leventhal 2024 NY Slip Op 31543(U) April 30, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 656211/2017 Judge: Debra A. James reveals a couple of sad truths about legal malpractice litigation. First, there are many twists and turns in the analysis of claims, especially claims that were never filed by the…
Large Sophisticated Commercial Entities Chart Their Own Course
Walsam 316 v 316 Bowery Realty Corp. 2024 NY Slip Op 02288 Decided on April 30, 2024 Appellate Division, First Department is the story of a real estate/rent overcharge proceeding between sophisticated commercial entities which, almost incidentally included a legal malpractice claim. Amendment of the legal malpractice claim was denied.
“Order, Supreme Court, New York…
Two Irreconcilable Stories Resolved
After reading the competing claims in Cotton v Kiperman 2024 NY Slip Op 31435(U)
April 22, 2024 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: Index No. 515660/2023
Judge: Francois A. Rivera we wonder how Surrogate’s Court came to its conclusion. In any event Supreme Court dismisses on res judicata.
“The complaint alleges the following salient facts…
Realty, Lot Line Windows and Legal Malpractice
Halperin v Held & Hines, LLP 2024 NY Slip Op 31415(U) April 12, 2024
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 652124/2019
Judge: Andrea Masley is another in a long line of New York legal malpractice cases arising from real estate troubles. Here, damages were deemed too speculative to proceed on the case.…
The Measure Of Damages For Architectural Malpractice
In Apollo Elec., Inc. v Aman Devs. LLC 2023 NY Slip Op 33466(U)
October 5, 2023 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 155250/2019 Judge Debra A. James surveys the difference between breach of contract by an architect and malpractice by an architect.
The difference can have profound effects on the statute of…
The So Very Rare Summary Judgment for Plaintiff in an Accounting Malpractice Case
Incorporated Vil. of Freeport v Albrecht, Viggiano, Zurich & Co., P.C. 2024 NY Slip Op 01800 Decided on April 3, 2024 Appellate Division, Second Department is the one-in-a-million summary judgment for plaintiff in a professional negligence case.
“The plaintiff commenced this action, inter alia, to recover damages for accounting malpractice against the defendants, Albrecht, Viggiano…
Old Procedural Decisions Doom Legal Malpractice Case
Rothman v Sandra Radna, P.C. 2024 NY Slip Op 02102 Decided on April 18, 2024
Appellate Division, First Department demonstrates that there are many procedural traps which can doom a later legal malpractice claim. In this setting, a stipulation collaterally estopped Plaintiff from suing the attorneys later.
“Plaintiff previously litigated whether defendants were entitled to…
“Self Help”, Minor L & T Issues and Judiciary Law 487
A common thread to legal malpractice litigation in New York is real estate, and not coincidentally, landlord-tenant issues. Often these cases involve multi-million dollar losses. SJB RE Holdings, LLC v Gifford 2024 NY Slip Op 30924(U) March 21, 2024
Supreme Court, Saratoga County Docket Number: Index No. EF20233420 Judge: Richard A. Kupferman is an upstate…
A Storied Diner, A Fraud and Accounting Malpractice
1650 Broadway Assoc., Inc. v Sturm 2024 NY Slip Op 01864 Decided on April 04, 2024
Appellate Division, First Department Renwick, P.J. is the story of a Diner, a Family and Fraud.
“Plaintiff 1650 Broadway Associates, Inc. is the owner of the iconic Stardust Diner, a family business originally owned by Irving Sturm and plaintiff…