Gopstein v Bellinson Law, LLC 2024 NY Slip Op 02592 [227 AD3d 465] May 9, 2024
Appellate Division, First Department is really the story of an attorney who became a serial legal malpractice litigant. It started with a personal injury case, a settlement, a legal malpractice case, a settlement, an attorney fee case, a settlement
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.
Chronic and Extreme, and Even Then, Not Lightly Given
Grasso v Guarino 2024 NY Slip Op 02692 [227 AD3d 872] May 15, 2024
Appellate Division, Second Department demonstrates how rarely Judiciary Law 487 relief is permitted on motions to dismiss, and even more rarely applied after all motion practice. the AD recited the various standards of the need for “an intent to deceive” as…
A 20-Year Old Debt and the Judiciary Law 487 Aftermath
Lutin v Perlberger 2024 NY Slip Op 31879(U) May 29, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 158734/2023 Judge: Dakota D. Ramseur is the story of attorney fees, pro-se plaintiffs, a judgment from 2000 and the aftermath. Plaintiff loses this round.
“Pro se plaintiff, Gary Lutin (plaintiff), commenced this action for extortion…
Speculation or Malpractice?
Supreme Court, New York County dealt with a number of arguments on why the legal malpractice complaint should be dismissed in 538 Morgan Realty LLC v Law Off. of Aihong You, PC 2024 NY Slip Op 32300(U) July 2, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 153886/2023 Judge: Richard G. Latin. Only…
A Hail Mary Attempt Which Sputters
Silverstein v Nezhat 2024 NY Slip Op 32173(U) June 24, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 109486/2006 Judge: Kathy J. King is a final attempt to increase the award in a medical malpractice case via a claim of violation of Judiciary Law 487. It fails.
“The instant medical malpractice action was…
“At Issue Waiver” and Legal Malpractice Claims
Brooklyn Tabernacle v Holland & Knight LLP 2024 NY Slip Op 31979(U) June 6, 2024 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: Index No. 520533/2020 Judge: Leon Ruchelsman presents a fairly restricted view of the recurring question of what communications between Plaintiff and successor attorneys are discoverable in a legal malpractice claim against predecessor counsel.
“The…
No Privity, No Case
Templeton v Roach 2024 NY Slip Op 03196 Decided on June 12, 2024 Appellate Division, Second Department does not explain the relationship between Plaintiff and J M & R Funding, LLC, but it definitely was not close enough for Plaintiff successfully to sue the attorneys.
“The defendant J M & R Funding, LLC (hereinafter J…
More Real Estate, More Legal Malpractice Litigation
Kugel v Reynolds 2024 NY Slip Op 03173 Decided on June 12, 2024 Appellate Division, Second Department is another example of how real estate transactions, especially in New York comprise a large part of the legal malpractice milieu.
“In 2012, the defendant Kenneth Reynolds entered into a contract to sell certain real property located in…
Some Claims Dismissed, But Not Legal Malpractice
Payne v Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolfe, LLP 2024 NY Slip Op 03341 Decided on June 18, 2024 Appellate Division, First Department demonstrates that in almost every setting where a client makes claims against an attorney the legal malpractice claim is primary, and potentially a breach of contract or a breach of fiduciary duty claim…
The Appellate Division Asks Wasn’t That Enough?
Bei Yang v Pagan Law Firm, P.C. 2024 NY Slip Op 03394 Decided on June 20, 2024 Appellate Division, First Department is a decision that is as short as possible. It comes in a case which seems to fit with those who would say that legal malpractice cases are all just “buyers’ remorse” or “dissatisfaction…