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 perennial question of whether a prior proceeding might influence a later proceedings arises again in Feinberg v. Boros, 2010 NY Slip Op 30797, by Justice Emily Jane Goodman, in Supreme Court, New York County.
The legal malpractice claim arose after an arbitration between plaintiff and his former business partner, where defendants acted as Feinberg’s…
The decision in Scartozzi v Potruch 10 NY Slip Op 03102 ; decided on April 13, 2010 ; Appellate Division, Second Department is long on discussion of summary judgment standards and a little short on background, but it appears that defendants gave advice to plaintiff in her divorce proceeding to forego trying to avoid…
Sometimes we ruminate on the fact that legal malpractice law is written by attorneys, utilized against attorneys, and rulled on by attorneys. There is no way around the conundrum. In Christ v Law Offs. of William F. Levine & Michael B. Grossman ; 2010 NY Slip Op 03056 ; Decided on April 13, 2010…
Today, we continue the story of the legal malpractice law suit against the LaRossa law firm. In Landau, P.C. v LaRossa, Mitchell & Ross ;2010 NY Slip Op 50620(U) ;Decided on April 7, 2010 ;Supreme Court, New York County ;Schlesinger, J.
Two interesting issues are discussed. The first is whether an expert affidavit is needed…
Morris Eisen was a huge figure in the personal injury law sector. As the Sun King of PI attorneys, Eisen could truthfully say "Le etat ce moi!" His firm had a full floor at the Woolworth Building, and early every morning, breakfast was served there. Anything from 10-30 trial attorneys assembled and were given new…
The matter of Steinberg v. Schnapp, 2010 NY SlipOp 02991 relates the story of three lawyers, all of whom labored over a decedent’s estate, and how the triumvirate fell apart. Steinberg and Schnapp were retained to handle the estate by the executor who in this case was the third attorney. Things fell apart rapidly, and…
Legal Malpractice and immigration cases are a rare fit. Practitioners in legal malpractice get lots of calls about immigration malpractice, but the elements and the parties rarely line up. Often if there is a good liability case, the client is no longer in the US. If the client is available, there is little evidence of…
We continue from yesterday in an examination of the statute of limitations in legal malpractice. It’s three years, pursuant to CPLR 214(6). It is a "bright line" rule, but it can have exceptions. Beyond the exceptions there is always a question as to when the statute begins to run. For example, there is a line of…
The statute of limitations in legal malpractice in NY is three years, pursuant to CPLR 214(6). It is a "bright line" rule, and can be both harsh and unbending. There are exceptions, and there are question as to when the statute begins to run. A recent US District Court case, in Southern District of New…
Sometimes a court opinion sets forth a grand landscape of the facts, the law, and public policy. These cases are revered forever. They are studied in law school, and provide fodder for generations of law students. We may not remember the names of the cases, but they remain in memory as mileposts. The folding box case…
