Coyle v Catterson 2025 NY Slip Op 34372(U) November 17, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 157161/2025 Judge: James d’Auguste is a kind of celebrity legal malpractice case, in as much as the defendant is a former Court of Appeals Judge who transitioned to a big law position. The underlying case
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.
“Effectively Compelled To Settle” and The Allocution in Matrimonial Cases
Matrimonial cases are unlike almost every other kind of case except a criminal plea. Get involved in a car accident and you will likely settle through your attorney with a release and a stipulation of discontinuance. Resolution of a breach of contract will follow the same paradigm, as will a battle over patents. However, settle…
Employment Discrimination Or No?
Stinnett v Derek Smith Law Group, PLLC 2025 NY Slip Op 04677 [241 AD3d 737]
August 13, 2025 Appellate Division, Second Department is a decision which obscurely indicates what might be the underlying case, where the underlying case was against Delta Airlines and Quest Diagnostics, and the outcome was that plaintiff was fired. How might…
Escrowed Monies, Immunity from Liability and the Statute of Limitations
Hsiung v Zhang Jiang Lin 2025 NY Slip Op 34306(U) November 7, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 650855/2025 Judge: Mary V. Rosado is a situation where an interpleaded plaintiff attorney is holding escrowed funds and was potentially subject to a legal malpractice claim. The attorney proposed to deposit the escrowed…
A NYC Phenomenon: Real Estate and Legal Malpractice
NYC is strongly real estate centric, and there is a wide swath of legal malpractice law based upon real estate transactions. Tesniere v Cinotti LLP 2025 NY Slip Op 34269(U) November 10, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 160760/2024 Judge: Mary V. Rosado is a recent addition.
“On April 28…
When Does the Statute of Limitations Start To Run?
In Campbell v Law Off. of Solomon Rosengarten 2025 NY Slip Op 04700 [241 AD3d 771]
August 20, 2025 Appellate Division, Second Department it starts to run when plaintiff is no longer able to prosecute a dismissed case.
“In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for legal malpractice, the plaintiff appeals from an order…
When Does The Representation End?
An analogous question reviewed in Coniglio v Dansker & Aspromonte Assoc. 2025 NY Slip Op 06154 Decided on November 12, 2025 Appellate Division, Second Department is when does the new representation start?
“In 2015, the plaintiff commenced an action to recover damages for podiatric malpractice (hereinafter the underlying action). The underlying action was commenced…
Reversal of Summary Judgment Denial in a Legal Malpractice Case
We read the AD decisions in order to educate ourselves, gain insight into how to phrase claims, how to defend claims and how to navigate the unique legal malpractice landscape. Saracino v Rosenberg, Calica & Birney, LLP 2025 NY Slip Op 06205
Decided on November 12, 2025 Appellate Division, Second Department is the reversal of…
A Lot of Litigation Over an Invoice
Levy v Brancato 2025 NY Slip Op 34103(U) October 24, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 159951/2024 Judge: Mary V. Rosado is the story of a representation, a battle over the retainer agreement, a “walk-off”, a fee arbitration and a de novo litigation.
“On January 6, 2023, Plaintiff retained Defendants to…
They Don’t Teach this Stuff in Law School
Matter of Agiovlasitis 2025 NY Slip Op 34090(U) October 30, 2025 Surrogate’s Court, New York County Docket Number: File No. 2024-416 Judge: Rita Mella goes into a plethora of things that never came up in Trusts and Estates, including “affidavits of comparison”, lost and replacement wills and Judiciary Law 487 deceit.
“The pertinent facts are…