The decision doesn’t tell us in what capacity the attorneys represented the client, but they are now in suit over legal fees, with a legal malpractice counterclaim. As we read this case, we wondered whether the time and effort was worth it. Will there ever be a collection of fees?
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.
The Non-Existant Discovery Statute of Limitations in Legal Malpractice
How often it happens that plaintiff learns of mistakes his prior counsel made, but only years later. Years is the operative word here, as the statute of limitations for legal malpractice is 3 years. So what happens when the attorney lets plaintiff’s claim lapse, more than three years goes by, and plaintiff then learns of…
If a Lawyer is not doing Lawyer’s Work, is it Legal Malpractice?
In this particular case it is a mortgage broker’s work, and the attorney may not get (or keep) legal fees for the work. In Patricia Dell’Olio, Claimant v. Law Office of Charles S. Spinardi P.C., Defendant, SCR 1199/10; Civil Court, Richmond County; we see on way in which an attorney who is doing transactional work…
The Wrong Client and Legal Malpractice
Client selection is a fine art, and one in which every attorney must apprentice. Select the right client – with a good cause of action and of a sane temperament – and all may go well. Select the wrong client, and a world of abuse and possibly legal malpractice litigation may follow.
What is an Account Stated in New York?
Billing disputes between attorneys and clients fuel the legal malpractice cycle. Attorney seeks to enforce a bill, client responds with a legal malpractice claim, and the litigation clock starts. Each side seeks and looks for shortcuts, or checkmates. One checkmate, which may cut off a legal malpractice action at the beginning is the principal of…
Account Stated, Legal Malpractice and Termination without Cause in the Southern District
Magistrate Judge James C. Francis writes in Brooks Banker, v.Esperanza Health Systems, Ltd., 05 Civ. 4115 (DAB) (JCF):
"Brooks Banker, an attorney, brings this action against the defendants, his former clients, for unpaid fees. Mr. Banker now moves pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for summary judgment on…
We have the Check, But We Didn’t Deposit it…Legal Malpractice?
Clients often believe that their attorney was "bought off" and sometimes stretch the facts to fit a conspiracy theory. Most of the time there is simply no institutional way that "buying off" could even have happened. Sometimes we are non-plussed at the actions of attorneys. We wonder, in this case, why the attorney didn’t tell…
Legal Malpractice Cases With Some Well Known Names
The Redskins! 6 Flags! Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft ! Legal malpractice cases do not get much higher visibility than this case. Nate Raymond of the The New York Law Journal reports that "Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has sued Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft for $13 million over advice it gave on an investment bank’s fee during a…
Apartment Finances Disasterous…Is it the Attorney’s Fault?
Real Estate commerce is a big time sport in New York, and in Manhattan might be considered a lifestyle unto itself. The buying and selling of cooperative and condominium apartments goes on in an endless swirl, good or bad economic times notwithstanding.
One element of the purchase is an educated or studied prediction of future costs. …
Why is this Legal Malpractice Case in Bankruptcy Court?
Plaintiff is a corporation,and it files a Chapter 11 petition. It then brings a traditional legal malpractice action in state court. Plaintiff commences the action against Defendant DLA Piper LLP and then itself removes the case to US District Court. The matter then is transferred to Bankruptcy Court. How does this play out? Why does plaintiff…