in PETER MCCLUSKEY, Plaintiff-Appellant, -v.- NEW YORK STATE UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM, CHIEF JUDGE JONATHAN LIPPMAN, GABOR & GABOR, DAVID GABOR, HOPE GABOR, Defendants-Appellees we see a pro-se litigant’s swipe at the NYS Court system, and his former attorneys. This Federal case takes place after plaintiff lost a legal malpractice case against the same defendant-attorneys.
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.
Legal Malpractice and the US Senate
"A bill to overhaul the patent system that is before the Senate contains a provision that could get an influential law firm off the hook for a possible $214 million malpractice payment.
J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press
“The key question is whether we will vote to bail out a law firm that…
Termination for Cause and Legal Malpractice
GABRIEL D’JAMOOS, , v. MICHAEL GRIFFITH, No. 08-3668-cvUNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT;2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 17868;August 12, 2009, discusses termination for cause and the proofs needed:
"Under New York law, an attorney may be dismissed by a client at any time with or without cause." Garcia v. Teitler, 443 F.3d…
A Long and Winidng Tale of Legal Malpractice
Cases in Landlord-Tenant court often have sad back-stories, and even sadder endings. In Alves v 152-154 W. 131st St. Holding Co., Inc. ;2011 NY Slip Op 32328(U) ;August 25, 2011
Supreme Court, New York ounty ;Docket Number: 116783/10 ;Judge: Donna M. Mills we see only the begining of a tale so complex, that it…
Persistance in the Legal Malpractice World
Appellate Decisions are always correct, well reasoned, and exquisitely written. Sometimes they are recalled and changed. Landa v Blocker 2011 NY Slip Op 06370 ; Decided on August 30, 2011 ; Appellate Division, Second Department is an example of the result of persistence in appellate work.
This case is an attorney fee/legal malpractice matter…
A Milestone for the New York Attorney Malpractice Blog
We rarely write about ourselves, but today we pass the 2500 article milestone. In our case, we generally publish one article a work day, and today’s submission makes 2501 articles. We thank our readers for their interest in the legal malpractice world and its unique players.
Third-Party Legal Malpractice Actions
Legal malpractice pops up in many transactional cases, and LZG Realty, LLC v H.D.W. 2005 Forest, LLC:011 NY Slip Op 06372;ecided on August 30, 2011;ppellate Division, Second Department is one. Here malpractice was alleged in a mortgage transaction where there were multiple mortgages and the allegation of fraud in documents by the borower.…
Fraud But Not Legal Malpractice in a NY/Florida Case
Failure to advise a client of the attorney’s malpractice (or hiding the malpractice) is not enough to give rise to a cause of action, but fraud in advising the client that attorney is licensed in Florida is enough. In Rupolo v Fish ; 2011 NY Slip Op 06343 ;Decided on August 23, 2011 ;Appellate Division…
Collateral Estoppel and Arbitration in Legal Malpractice
The perennial question of whether a prior proceeding might influence a later proceedings arises again in Feinberg v. Boros, 2010 NY Slip Op 30797, by Justice Emily Jane Goodman, in Supreme Court, New York County.
The legal malpractice claim arose after an arbitration between plaintiff and his former business partner, where defendants acted as Feinberg’s…
The Judgment Defense in Legal Malpractice
What is a question of judgment, what is neglect of a case and what is ignorance of the rules in legal malpractice? Sometimes this is an easy question, other times, slightly more complex. in MCCORD -v.- O’NEILL,; No. 08-3096-cv ; Summary Order; UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT;2010 U.S. App. LEXIS…