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.
"Terminated with extreme prejudice" was a euphamism in the older spy novels. In this legal malpractice case, witholding service until after the death of a defendant-attorney results in dismissal and termination of the case.
Postawa v David ; 2011 NY Slip Op 50902(U) ; Decided on May 20, 2011 ; Supreme Court, Queens County is…
"Questions of judgment" or "strategies at trial" are frowned upon as legal malpractice departures. A strong body of law holds that trial is an art and not a science, and choices of strategy, even though eventually losers, will not be the means to a successful legal malpractice case. Selection of witnesses, of experts, and of…
"Standing" is the concept of a right to sue. In legal malpractice there is a very strict requirement that only a client (with very limited exceptions) may sue the attorney. Were this not so, every case would end with a legal malpractice started by the loser, and sometimes, the winner.
So, in Brooklyn Elec. Supply …
Plaintiff’s decedent goes to a Queens motel and is shot dead. The shooter eventually pleads guilty to manslaughter. How much time does the estate have to sue the shooter, the hotel and was it given correct advice on the statute of limitations by its attorney?
Ross v Saravanos ;2011 NY Slip Op 31310(U)…
Client sues attorneys for legal malpractice, and attorneys counterclaim against client for "contribution and indemnity." When may this properly go forward? What is "contribution" and what is "indemnity" ?
Contribution is the apportionment of fault among joint tortfeasors. Several contractors who each negligently damage a tenant might seek contribution among themselves.
Indemnity is the situation in…
One of the crucial questions to be asked in legal malpractice litigation is when did the representation end. This question comes only shortly after the question of when did the negligent event take place. The statute of limitations is three years from the negligent event or the last date that the attorneys represented the client…
When might an attorney be liable to a non-client for legal malpractice? ""The law in New York does not recognize any liability on the part of an attorney to a nonclient third party for injuries sustained as a result of an attorney’s actions in representing his client absent fraud, collusion, or a malicious or tortious…
There is little (or no) factual underpinning to this legal malpractice case, and no explanation of the various positions taken by the parties. In Pistilli Constr. & Dev. Corp. v Epstein, Rayhill & Frankini ; 2011 NY Slip Op 04025 ; Decided on May 10, 2011 ; Appellate Division, Second Department we directly learn only…
The early days of the 20th century brought us the Robber barons, and the rise of corporations. The interconnectedness and remote nature of the relationships challenged the Courts, and led to a school of "better practice" business aspiration. Today, as long as a profit motive exists, there will be arrangements between persons which are created…
Attorney fee suits lead to interesting further proceedings. An oft cited piece of advice at CLEs is that attorney fee suits invite legal malpractice counterclaims. Here is one. They do not always succeed. However, was it worth the $6000 fee case?
In Richard A. Kraslow, P.C. v LoGiudice ; 2011 NY Slip Op 50823(U) ; …
