in Frederick v Meighan ;2010 NY Slip Op 06076 ;Appellate Division, Second Department we see the effect of Attorney 2 failing to clean up Attorney 1’s mistakes. In addition we see an instance of what we believe to be a systemic aversion to legal malpractice cases. Here, for example, Supreme Court sua sponte grants dismissal
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.
More on Pryor Cashman and Legal Malpractice
We wrote about the Pryor Cashman legal malpractice case last week. Here is the NY Law Journal’s take on it:
"A legal malpractice lawsuit filed by the trustees to a union’s benefit funds against Pryor Cashman for failing to provide advice that would have prevented the funds’ third-party administrator from embezzling $42 million may…
Legal Malpractice and CPLR 3211 Motions
We have written that sometimes Courts are too eager to dismiss a legal malpractice case in CPLR 3211 grounds. Here, in Fitzsimmons v Pryor Cashman LLP ; 2011 NY Slip Op 08280 ; Decided on November 17, 2011 ; Appellate Division, First Department the Court denied dismissal and the Appelate Division affirmed.
"The court…
How Are Legal Malpractice Damages Calculated?
One frequently sees an argument made in motions to dismiss pursuant to CPLR 3211 (multiple sub-divisions) in which evidentiary material is submitted by defendant, and it is argued that damages cannot be ascertained or proven.
In Simpson v Alter ;2010 NY Slip Op 08089 ;Decided on November 9, 2010 ;Appellate Division, Second Department the…
Outright Theft and Legal Malpractice
On occasion, a story makes one stop and wonder how it could have happened. In Heller v Goldberg, Scudieri & Lindenberg, P.C.; 2011 NY Slip Op 32930(U); November 2, 2011;Sup Ct, NY County;Docket Number: 105061/11;Judge: Eileen A. Rakower we see not the first, but rather, the second transgression by a partner in a well…
Several Tries at a Legal Malpractice Case
Plaintiff law firm wants to collect $ 58,000 in fees, and Defendant Client believes that the law firm abandoned her during a divorce, took her escrow monies to pay fees, and caused her to spend $ 250,000 to get another attorney up to speed. The case has been before Justice James, in Supreme Court, New York…
What an Example of the Crime-Fraud Exception in Legal Malpractice
Clients often feel that attorneys are less than trustworthy, and never more often than in the company-executive situation where the company believes that the lawyers are in cahoots with the executive. Here, in FLYCELL, INC., -against- SCHLOSSBERG LLC and MICHAEL T. O’NEIL, Defendants.;No. 11-CV-0915-CM;UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW…
Overreaching in the Residential Market and Legal Malpractice
During the housing run-up there was a frenzied buy-and-sell atmosphere. Buyers were looking to maximize a purchase with an eye to a large profit. Not all transactions went well, and as always, when commercial transactions fail, there will have been representation by attorneys, and later claims of attorney malpractice.
Here, in Humbert v Allen ;…
What is the Liability of Subsequent Attorneys in Legal Malpractice
Macaluso v Pollack , 2010 NYSlipOp 30276(U) , Justice Diamond, Nassau County, presents an interesting story of how a case can get dismissed. Beyond the storyline, the case presents analysis of liability of predecessor/subsequent attorneys, how the dissolution of a partnership affects legal malpractice litigation, what subsequent attorneys can accomplish in the Second Circuit, and…
Pre-judgment Interest and Attorney Fees
Quantum Meruit Claims: Is Interest Mandatory or Discretionary? by Joseph H. Einstein and Jonathan Gardner provides a well written analysis of whether pre-judgment interest is available to attorneys who prevail in a quantum meruit claim for fees. The cases are all over the board, with differences between the Appellate Divisions and even within each…