Standing in legal malpractice cases is determined by the question of privity. Privity comes in several flavors. One is whether there is a contract between client and attorney, written, oral, or implied. If there is a contract, (even if the contract is implied from the factual representation which takes place), then that particular question of
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.
Mass Mailings and Legal Malpractice
This case is really a fight amongst insurance companies, but it highlights an interesting source of legal malpractice cases: the referral. While at first blush it might seem unreasonable for client to hold attorney responsible for merely giving a name to them to speak to, in American Guar. & Liab. Ins. Co. v Chicago Ins. …
Willkie Farr and Legal Malpractice
Today’s New York Law Journal, in an article by Christine Simmons reports that a legal malpractice case against Willkie Farr & Gallagher has been dismissed.
"His complaint alleged that Willkie lawyers Marc Abrams and Matthew Feldman made "full-throated warnings" that Lichtenstein risked drastic personal exposure if he did not authorize a bankruptcy filing. Lichtenstein said…
Are There Fees Due, and Was There Legal Malpractice?
One of the more interesting phenomena is the transition of claims into findings as a case goes to trial. What were formerly "strong" claims, now are final findings of fact. In Krausz v Kaufman 2013 NY Slip Op 30803(U) April 9, 2013 Sup Ct, New York County Docket Number: 104174/2008
Judge Debra A. James…
Legal Malpractice at a Trial
Is it possible to prove legal malpractice at a trial which goes to the jury? While an argument can be made that the attorney failed to call a particular witness, or failed to offer a particular piece of evidence, the countervailing argument will be that an attorney may choose among several different reasonable trial strategies…
TMI in a Legal Malpractice Case
As cases become problems, or as basic problems become more prominent in litigation cases, one offshoot is that litigants take it into their own hands to try to remedy the situation. Whylie v Pager 2013 NY Slip Op 50601(U) Decided on April 18, 2013 Supreme Court, Kings County
Schack, J. is just such a case. …
1st Amendment Rights and Legal Malpractice
As the Appellate Division plows through the "what would have been the outcome" analysis of Ruotolo v Mussman & Northey 2013 NY Slip Op 02678 Decided on April 18, 2013
Appellate Division, First Department , we see the in depth factual and hypothetical work that’s done in a legal malpractice case. Here, a former…
Injury Not Serious Enough for Legal Malpractice
Frequently, clients discern mistakes make in their cases, and wish to start a legal malpractice case. Unfortunately, departure from good practice is but one of the four elements of legal malpractice. The merit of most legal malpractice cases is determined by analysis of the middle two points. Was the mistake a proximate cause of damage…
Legal Malpractice and the Judgment Doctrine
Is it that Plaintiff could not articulate a reason why Defendant made a mistake that caused him damage? Is it that the Appellate Division just didn’t like the case and agreed that it should be dismissed? Did the attorneys make a subjectively and objectively reasonable choice of strategy that just didn’t work? We’ll never know. …
The Collateral Estoppel Trap in Legal Malpractice -Workers’ Compensation Model
A basic rule of legal malpractice is that an attorney may not be granted a fee by a court or tribunal if there is legal malpractice present. Since an attorney may not obtain a fee if there has been legal malpractice, it follows, ipso facto, that if a court or a tribunal grants a…