We’re proud to announce that our article "Legal Malpractice, Retaining and Charging Liens" was published in today’s New York Law Journal. It’s about the issue most close to the hearts of attorneys, fees. What happens at the end of the attorney-client relationship and how are fees worked out? Read on…
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.
Attorneys Sued, but not in Legal Malpractice
Attorney being sued in legal malpractice – not a big story. Attorney settling and paying $ 25 Million in malicious prosecution ? Big story. Here is the enormous settlement story from Brian Baxter of the New York Law Journal..
"Ending 13 years of litigation, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips has agreed to pay $25 million in…
Two Out of Three Isn’t Sufficient in Legal Malpractice
Legal malpractice counterclaims face an uphill battle in attorney fee cases, and Schulte Roth & Zabel, LLP v Kassover ; 2011 NY Slip Op 00267 ; Decided on January 20, 2011 ; Appellate Division, First Department is no exception. The law firm represented defendants and worked up a $ 500,000 + bill. Client partially paid…
Breach of Fiduciary Duty in the Legal Malpractice and Life Insurance Arena
Attorney is retained by plaintiff to prepare a commercial and corporate agreement between plaintiff and a commercial suitor. In the end, plaintiff claims, attorney took a look at plaintiff’s niche business, then formed its own spin-off company to compete. Competition rose to the $ 2.5 billion level. Justice Feinman rendered a decision in Sharbat v …
Shocking Lapses in a Real Estate Legal Malpractice Case
Purchasers of real property should have bullet-proof protection on title and the conditions of sale. There are any number of good, competent attorneys who are ready to handle a real estate buy-sell and to get the appropriate title search, survey and whatever else is necessary to ensure that the buyer gets what the bargain requires. …
An Endless Conflict: Attorney Fees and Malpractice
Attorney fees are an endless source of conflict. They have always been an endless source of conflict. We faintly remember from high school that Abraham Lincoln was involved in attorney fee litigation. Today is no exception. inLanda v Blocker ;2011 NY Slip Op 00191 ;Decided on January 11, 2011 ;Appellate Division, Second Department …
Bankruptcy and Malpractice: Piling On?
Client suffers injury, client suffers (same or different) financial stresses and filed a petition in bankruptcy. Effect is that client loses claim of injury to the bankruptcy estate, and may no longer bring the action. Eventually, client is discharged in bankruptcy and sues the professional. The case will be dismissed, for lack of standing. So…
An Unusual Breach of Fiduciary Duty, But no Legal Malpractice
Typically a claim of breach of fiduciary duty involving an attorney will be an afterthought, or an alternative pleading, sometimes a duplicitive one, sometimes an independent cause of action. Rarely does it stand alone. Here, an attorney is accused of aiding a ponzi scheme, and really big numbers are involved. As Nolene Walder of the…
When is A Legal Malpractice Case Ripe?
Ripeness in legal terms means that a dispute is so fully developed that a court might determine the rights and liabilities of the parties. This issue arises in legal malpractice settings because the underlying case (the case within a case) is not always finished or fully litigated. When the underlying case is not yet fully…
A Huge Real Estate and Legal Malpractice Problem
Partnerships and LLCs, real estate and plans to make a lot of money often unravel, and do so in messy ways. Here, in Shapsis v Kogan ; 2011 NY Slip Op 50014(U) ; Decided on January 7, 2011 Supreme Court, Kings County ; Demarest, J. we see the tail end of the proceedings, after a…