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.
Malvasio v Savran; 2011 NY Slip Op 31763(U); June 30, 2011; Supreme Court, Nassau County
Judge: Jeffrey S. Brown is an illustration of the "but for" element of legal malpractice. Plaintiff must be able to demonstrate that there would have been a better or different outcome had the attorneys done their job.
"Plaintiffs claim…
A Long Island practitioner persisted in moving and appealing, and the AD rewarded him with reversal of the dismissal of two of the causes of action in his case. In Hoffman v Colleluori
2011 NY Slip Op 05669 Decided on June 28, 2011 ; Appellate Division, Second Department we see the AD calculating the statute…
Legal proceedings in foreclosure settings have ebbed and flowed over the years. Right now there is a tremendous backlog in the cases, mostly as a result of tightened rules. The concept of Robosigners has recently been in the news, and this case highlights the dangers to bank attorneys in foreclosures. HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v …
American Lawyer reports that legal malpractice claims are on the rise in the US.
"Law firms are being hit with significantly more malpractice claims in 2011 than they were in 2010, according to a new survey of insurers that specialize in legal malpractice coverage. The sputtering economy and a sagging real estate market are the…
In Legal Malpractice the question of a statute of limitations often arises. Legal malpractice accrues on the date that the mistake is made, not on the day plaintiff discovers it. Continuous representation allows plaintiff to continue to use the attorney, and does not require an immediate suit, In Aronov v Law Off. of Roman Popik, P.C.…
It is a rare case in which a legal malpractice cause of action is upheld against the other side’s attorney. Privity of contract is the first thing one thinks about when gauging whether there can be a legal malpractice case. Here, in Ginsburg Dev. Cos., LLC v Carbone ; 2011 NY Slip Op 05664
Decided…
Attorney fee disputes often blossom into legal malpractice cases, although Stephan B. Gleich & Assoc. v Gritsipis ; 2011 NY Slip Op 05483 ; Decided on June 21, 2011 ; Appellate Division, Second Department is not one of these. Nevertheless, it is one of the longest attorney fee disputes in memory. The case itself started in…
BLT reports that the Wilmer law firm may well have to pay $ 214 million in legal malrpactice settlement fees, all depending on a case in which they have no say. From the article:
"Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr is facing the prospect of making $214 million in payments to one of its clients…
Client hires attorney for divorce, and the attorney works through the end of the divorce. There are ancillary matters (QDRO) that follow, and more than three years later, client is sued over the late husband’s life insurance policy. She hires the same attorney, and is later sued for lega fees. She counterclaims for legal malpractice arsing…
Manus v Flamm , 2011 NY Slip Op 31691(U); June 14, 2011; Supreme Court, New York County; Docket Number: 110026/2007; Judge: Debra A. James tells an interesting story of divorce, legal malpractice and itinerant jewelery. Plaintiff is the divorced wife, who is owed $ 1 million in the divorce. She borrows jewelery from the husband’s…
