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.
We write that legal malpractice issues are everywhere, and might surface in any setting. Here is a story from the National Law Journal about a 35 year old missing will of Mama Cass, and whether the attorneys who had it in their files were negligent in not producing it back when it counted.
Leigh Jones…
Plaintiff says that this is not a legal malpractice case, but it is the death knell of a well known and long lived law firm in New York City. 150 Broadway N.Y. Assoc., L.P. v Shandell ;2011 NY Slip Op 30009(U); January 3, 2011; Supreme Court, New York County; Docket Number: 601950/09; Judge: Judith…
There are conflicting rules in the 4 departments of New York. In legal malpractice, it is plaintiff’s obligation to demonstrate that a hypothetical judgment could be collected in a legal malpractice case in the 2d, 3d and 4th departments. In the First Department, it is an affirmitive defense for defendant to prove.
Here is a…
The Curtis law firm bills itself as "the only law firm[s] in the United States" to concentrate their practice on "representing clients injured by attorneys." In this US District Court case we see legal malpractice attorneys suing legal malpractice attorneys under a very unconventional theory of law.
Leviton Manufacturing is a huge manufacturer of electrical and electronic items, and regularly patents new inventions. Here, in LEVITON MFG. CO., INC., -against- GREENBERG TRAURIG LLP, et al.,09 Civ. 8083 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12884;9 ( December 6, 2010) Magistrate Judge Katz decides whether successor attorneys may…
Egnotovich v. Katten Muchin Zavis & Roseman LLP, 604101/06 , Decided January 23, 2008 ,Justice Bernard J. Fried NEW YORK COUNTY ,Supreme Court Plaintiffs joined a vacation club in which they each deposited $ 400,000, and the group was to purchase or lease apartments or houses in prime vacatiion spots. These spots included Paris…
The economy stalls, the stock market falls, big investment schemes become exposed, and huge real estate projects run into problems. This weekend’sNY Times discussed how big name real estate players can run into problems, but it is the investors who lose the money. Here, in GSO RE Onshore LLC v Sapir ;2010 NY…
Criminal defense legal malpractice cases are so rare that the 4th Department found but a single case to discuss in the decision in Dombrowski v Bulson ;2010 NY Slip Op 09625 ; Decided on December 30, 2010 ;Appellate Division, Fourth Department . Plaintiff was convicted, lost on appeal, argued ineffective assistance of counsel, lost…
In an otherwise garden or varietal attorney fee dispute with a legal malpractice defense, we ran across the "French Person" defense to attorney fees for the first time. Justice Gische, in Singer v Adler ;2010 NY Slip Op 33439(U); December 13, 2010; Sup Ct, NY County gave it short shrift.
"This action is based…
Irony has little place in litigation, yet it abounds. In Perez-Faringer v Heilman ; 2010 NY Slip Op 09238 ; Decided on December 14, 2010 ; Appellate Division, Second Department plaintiff, pro-se in the action below, and in the appeal, has had the action dismissed, for the mere and easily avoidable failure to serve a complaint…
