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.
Justice Ling-Cohan writes a basic textbook of how an account stated case is decided in an attorney fee setting in Mintz & Fraade, P.C. v Docuport, Inc. 2012 NY Slip Op 30974(U) April 11, 2012 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 603125/07 Judge: Doris Ling-Cohan. Here the law firm loses.
"Before this court…
This attorney fee dispute went through the Supreme Court, the Appellate Division, Arbitration, and back to Supreme court. In the end opposition papers were rejected, cross-motions were filed 5 hours late, and the case ended up with a big award on the attorney fees. We wonder if they are collectible?
In the Third Department certain types of cases seem to predominate. One such type is tax matters. This case, Dealey-Doe-Eyes Maddux v Schur ; 2011 NY Slip Op 02763 ; Appellate Division, Third Department falls into that category. A failed tax action against Fulton County, followed by a failed legal malpractice action, followed by two later…
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 Decided on…
The short answer to the question is yes, they do; the longer answer to the question is that their rights to first amendment protection of speech is very limited, and litigation over those rights will be stringently examined, or better put, subject to strict scrutiny. In Ruotolo v Mussman & Northey
2012 NY Slip Op…
Legal malpractice cases require that one prove a departure, a proximate cause, that but for the mistake there would have been a better and different outcome and ascertainable damages. In Angeles v Aronsky 2012 NY Slip Op 30851(U) April 2, 2012 Sup Ct, NY County Docket Number: 100091/2009 Judge: Judith J. Gische we see how a…
Judiciary Law 487, one of the oldest statutes in the Anglo-American law remains imprecise and widely available to interpretation. in Strumwasser v Zeiderman ; 2012 NY Slip Op 30772(U)
March 15, 2012 ;Supreme Court, New York County ; Docket Number: 113524/2010;
Judge: Joan A. Madden we see the Court struggling with the question of whether…
Appellate Decisions are always correct, well reasoned, and exquisitely written. Sometimes they are recalled and changed.Landa v Blocker 2011 NY Slip Op 06370 ; Appellate Division, Second Department is an example of the result of persistence in appellate work.
This case is an attorney fee/legal malpractice matter in which it was alleged that the…
Guardian is appointed for an incapacitated person. Guardain defalcates with the money. Court examiner is appointed to look over the guardian’s accounts. Court examiner fails to pick up the missing money. Is the Court examiner responsible or liable to anyone at all? Seems the answer is no.
Ginsberg v Broome ; 2012 NY Slip Op 02585 ; Decided on April 5, 2012 ; Appellate Division, First Department opens the curtain over how partnerships break up, and the fall out over telling an insurance company that there had been legal malpractice committed by a partner. This case has been partialy dismissed in Supreme…
