Justice March Friedman, of Supreme Court, New York County recently decided Tanger v Ferrer 2010 NYSlipOp 31355(U) in which the third-party claim between attorneys was that DLA Piper, US LLP owed a duty to Eaton & Van Winkle LLP after plaintiff sued Ferrer and Eaton for legal malpractice. The malpractice is alleged to be the negligent preparation of
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.
Legal Malpractice Dismissal Reversed in Toto
Is legal malpractice litigation held to a higher standard? Are there more motions to dismiss the complaint granted against legal malpractice complaints than against the rest of the law-o-sphere? We have no hard figures, but anecdotal evidence suggests that legal malpractice is held to a higher standard. As an example, how could Supreme Court and…
A Last Attempt for a Legal Malpractice Plaintiff
Its a most unusual case, and one rarely sees a law firm in Bankruptcy. IN RE: THE LAW FIRM OF FRANK R. BAYGER, P.C., Debtor.09-CV-735A;UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK;2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51537;May 24, 2010, illustrates how tenacious a legal malpractice plaintiff may be.
"The events underlying the…
A Tangled Real Estate Web and Legal Malpractice
Reading the decision in a case like this requires both a score card and a play diagram. In LZG Realty LLC v H.D.W. 2005 Forest LLC ;2010 NY Slip Op 50958(U) ; Decided on May 28, 2010
Supreme Court, Richmond County ; McMahon, J. a series of real estate transactions led to mortgages…
Dismissal and Reversal in Legal Malpractice
In Reiver v Burkhart Wexler & Hirschberg, LLP ; 2010 NY Slip Op 04565 ; Decided on May 25, 2010 ; Appellate Division, Second Department we see the Appellate Division reversing dismissal of a legal malpractice action under CPLR 3211.
The rules of CPLR 3211 motions are as well known to the parties and…
Will This Be the End of Legal Malpractice Litigation?
An oft repeated mistake in NY litigation, especially in NYC litigation is that of the leave to file a late notice of claim index number trap. Put in short, plaintiff successfully seeks leave to file a late notice of claim, and then, using the same index number, files a summons and complaint against the governmental…
International Legal Malpractice Litigation and Motion Practice
Plaintiff is a Czech national, married to a US citizen. Matrimonial litigation takes place here in NY, and an allegation is made that the husband fraudulently denied the existence of a child, avoided child support issues, and in general, lied. Plaintiff, wife, had several attorneys, and alleges that she was shuttled between attorneys, one hiring the…
A Criminal Trial, A Life Turned Upside Down, Legal Malpractice
Reported in today’s NYLJ, we see the tragic story of an arrest, an attorney who does little or nothing, a conviction and a world turned upside down. Plaintiff obtains reversal and acquittal, thus demonstrating "actual innocence." Glassman v. Blau is Referee Doyle’s decision on damages.
"Defendant, an attorney, represented plaintiff in a criminal proceeding in…
When It’s Legal Malpractice or Breach of Fiduciary Duty
Sometimes one reads a decision not knowing whether the court will dismiss or not dismiss. Sometimes, the question is whether the attorney’s acts amount to legal malpractice or breach of fiduciary duty. Here, the Court points out exactly how it perceives the case. In B&R Consol LLC v. Powell we see the story of…
Judiciary Law 487 and the Other Guy’s Lawyer
Dupree v. Vorhees, 68 AD3d 807, remains an interesting case. Traditionally this type of case has been out of bounds. For policy reasons, courts do not like suits against your adversary’s attorney…they might come after every case if allowed. Here, however, after the Judiciary Law 487 claims were initially dismissed,, continued to…