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.
Some years ago the Legislature overruled the Court of Appeals, and passed CPLR 214(6). That statute was interpreted to say that all claims against an attorney (some other professionals) were subject to a 3 year statute, whether the claim was made in negligence or contract.
Here, in Walter v Castrataro 2012 NY Slip Op 02676…
Client trips and falls because of a defect in a parking lot. Client goes to attorney who fails to commence the case within the statute of limitations. Client sues attorney who comes up with very inventive defenses. What happens to the case on summary judgment?
inDuque v Perez 2012 NY Slip Op 03593, Appellate…
Insurers tell insureds that legal fee cases are the surest way of starting a legal malpractice case. In Blank Rome, LLP v Parrish ;2012 NY Slip Op 00820 ;Decided on February 7, 2012 ;Appellate Division, First Department we see how this develops.
"Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Jeffrey K. Oing, J.), entered on or…
The principal of account stated, "an agreement between parties to an account based upon prior transactions between them with respect to the correctness of the account items and the balance due. By retaining billing statements and failing to object to the account within a reasonable time, the recipient of the bill implies that he or…
We remember some Shakespeare quote about how Caesar’s wife must be more worthy than any other politician/emperor’s wife. Similarly, here a legal malpractice case is dismissed for failure to file a complaint after a demand had been made. In Dayan v Darche 2012 NY Slip Op 04312 Appellate Division, Second Department the Court writes:
…
Immigration law legal malpractice cases are relatively rare. One reason is that the plaintiff is usually not int he US and a second reason is that damages are somewhat difficult to calculate, in these days of purely economic or "out-of-pocket" damages. Here is an unusual case. Delgado v Bretz & Coven, LLP 2013 NY…
Yesterday we took a look at RGH Liquidating Trust v Deloitte & Touche LLP 2013 NY Slip Op 31224(U) June 6, 2013 Sup Ct, New York County Docket Number: 600057/06 Judge: Eileen Bransten on the issue of standing. Today, we’ll look at the proximate cause issue. Just to remind you, this billion dollar professional malpractice…
It’s shocking to look at the list of banks which made an unsuccessful claim for professional malpractice in RGH Liquidating Trust v Deloitte & Touche LLP 2013 NY Slip Op 31224(U)
June 6, 2013 Sup Ct, New York County Docket Number: 600057/06 Judge: Eileen Bransten and to realize that they were unable to recoup…
Money disputes between clients and attorneys are a rich source of litigation. This is likely due to the low entry costs for attorneys to sue their clients, and the fact that clients are really relegated to the closed purse method of dealing with uncooperative attorneys. Hence the stage is set for a large body of…
Uninsured Motorist’s Coverage is insurance that one buys for the instance in which the other driver is uninsured or underinsured. Before that coverage, which has already been paid for, is triggered, several things must take place. One is that the entire policy payout of the other driver must be obtained and the second is that…
