The "frozen out" minority loses a corporate cause of action – contract case, and believes that the attorneys for the majority colluded with the majority to freeze them out. They believe that the attorneys helped the majority to breach fiduciary duties. They felt that there was sufficient evidence to support a claim for legal malpractice
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.
Settlements and Legal Malpractice Litigation
How does a settlement affect the later legal malpractice claim against the attorney who represented plaintiff in the settlement? We have seen an erosion of the standard that a legal malpractice claim after settlement is permitted if plaintiff was ‘effectively compelled" to settle because of the departures of the attorney. In some divorce cases in…
Property Law Across the Seas
A French artist wants to buy an apartment in New York for a studio and living space. So far, this could be the start of a fairy tale in which the artist comes to NY, works hard, triumphs, etc. But, this real estate transaction soon turned to legal malpractice litigation. One reason for the problems…
Trusts, Estates and Legal Malpractice
Schneider v. Finmann, 15 NY3d 306 (2010) notwithstanding, Pace v Raisman & Assoc., Esqs., LLP 2012 NY Slip Op 03989 Decided on May 23, 2012 Appellate Division, Second Department
is yet another case in which alleged legal malpractice in a trust setting is dismissed on statute of limitations grounds.
"In 2001 the plaintiff’s decedent sought…
An Outside Counsel Column in the New York Law Journal
We are pleased to announce the publication of out Outside Counsel Column " Legal Malpractice in Matrimonial Litigation" from this week.
A Second Try Fares No Better in Legal Malpractice
Fortress Credit Corp. suedDechert LLP, and lost after Marc Dreier "proposed to plaintiffs that they participate in a short-term note program to finance the purchase of foreign real estate assets. The designated borrower would be Dreier’s clients, Solow Realty & Development Company, LLC, and affiliated companies controlled by real estate developer Sheldon Solow…
After Many Preliminaries, Pro-Se Defendants Avoids Summary Judgment
Nachama Hirsch is the pro-se defendant in this attorney fee-legal malpractice case. She was the wife in a divorce where the husband was able to take the couples assets into bankruptcy during the period between the grant of an order against him and the entry, and in doing so took millions away from the rightful…
Did A Legal Malpractice Case Kill Dewey & LeBoeuf?
Legal malpractice cases are ubiquitous an pop up everywhere attorneys handle problems for people. We’ve wondered how a firm like Dewey (and its predecessor LeBoeuf, Lamb) are handled at the highest levels, and how a firm such as Dewey implodes. Was it a big big legal malpractice case brought by the State of Missouri? Take…
Picking a Lousy Expert is Legal Malpractice, right?
Experts are often needed in litigation, and always in medical malpractice litigation. Med Mal cases are lost and it is sometimes thought that they are lost because of experts. Was the expert good enough? Did the expert "give" the departures?
In Healy v Finz & Finz, P.C. 2011 NY Slip Op 01616 Decided on…
Defendant’s Own Evidence Leads to Reversal in Legal Malpractice Case
Plaintiff hires defendant attorney to represent plaintiff when he is sued. The underlying case seems to be a construction accident matter. Did plaintiff lose the case because defendant failed to make certain arguments, or was defendant prevented from making those arguments by his client? We can’t really tell from the decision, but it seems that…