Gallet Dreyer & Berkey, LLP v Basile 2013 NY Slip Op 30101(U) January 16, 2013 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 109687/11 Judge: Donna M. Mills is a recently decided case that touches on three themes. The first is legal malpractice cases after settlement, the second is privity and the third is hindsight. Plaintiffs
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.
A Condo, A Tennancy in Common and a Legal Malpractice Case
Wadsworth Condos LLC sought to develop a condominium building, and took on others as kind-of partners, but really as tenants in common. What developed thereafter led to problems with municipal entities, a lot of money spent and a legal malpractice case, Wadsworth Condos LLC v Dollinger Gonski & Grossman 2013 NY Slip Op 30149(U)  …
A Close Look at a Settlement and Legal Malpractice
The Appellate Division avoided rubber stamping a summary judgment decision, and took a longer and closer look at the underlying case. In this particular instance it affirmed, but did not simply say that settlement of the underlying case ended the discussion. In Bellinson Law, LLC v Iannucci
2013 NY Slip Op 00395 Decided on January…
It Makes A Difference to Whom You Talk about Legal Malpractice
Accusing an attorney of legal malpractice may have dangerous consequences, but, as in all things, the details matter. To whom you make the accusation is very important. Make it to just anyone, and there might be a good defamation law suit; make it to another concerned attorney and it could be permissible.
In Sklover v Sack 2013…
A Slight Turn-about in Fee Dispute and Legal Malpractice Issues
Often enough, Courts have applied res judicata broadly to the question of attorney fee disputes and a later legal malpractice issue. As a blackletter rule, if an attorney asks the court to set a fee, and it does, that act bars plaintiff from bringing the legal malpractice case on the theory that fees may not…
How Does Judiciary Law 487 Play Into This?
Yesterday we looked at Chibcha Rest., Inc. v David A. Kaminsky & Assoc., P.C. 2013 NY Slip Op 00281 Decided on January 22, 2013 Appellate Division, First Department for the question of how much a plaintiff must show, and the difference between missing a deadline and almost all other claims.
Today, we look…
Lack of Skill and Failure to Prepare Do Not Suffice
Although a demonstrated lack of skill and a failure to prepare for litigation might, on its face, seem proper fodder for a legal malpractice case, in Chibcha Rest., Inc. v David A. Kaminsky & Assoc., P.C. 2013 NY Slip Op 00281 Decided on January 22, 2013 Appellate Division, First Department the court held: "Plaintiffs’…
Matrimonial Legal Malpractice
In our article on Matrimonial Legal Malpractice and settlements in to days New York Law Journal we discuss the recent line of cases which disturb the well settled principal that a legal malpractice case after settlement is permitted where the settlement was "effectively compelled" by the mistakes of counsel.
This new line of cases, starting…
Might The Expert Commit Legal Malpractice?
We were recently asked whether an Expert, testifying in a legal malpractice case can commit legal malpractice during testimony in the case. We discussed whether there was an attorney-client relationship, and whether "absolute immunity" for in-court testimony applied. Now, Levine v Harriton & Furrer, LLP ; 2012 NY Slip Op 01401 ; Appellate Division, Third…
When is Legal Malpractice a “Federal Question?”
State Court cases may be removed to Federal Court in two instances. One is where there is complete diversity of citizenship and the requisite dollar-damage amounts; the second is where the claim "arises" under federal law. One such instance may be questions of legal malpractice in the patents area. We are certainly aware of case…