Accounting malpractice is different from legal malpractice in several important ways. The first is the nature of yearly tax filings, which sets the structure for the application of the statute of limitations to a mistake in a single tax year and often rules out any question of the tolling of that statute because of continuing
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.
A Huge Loss in the Commercial Real Estate World and Legal Malpractice
Gans v Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl, LLC 2026 NY Slip Op 01305 Decided on March 10, 2026 Appellate Division, First Department features some of the biggest players in the legal malpractice defense world, a surprise entry on the plaintiff’s side and a party in the underlying transactions with the same name but that has…
So, Whose Fault Is This?
The client didn’t exercise a right of first refusal. Was it the attorney’s fault for not presenting a complete package to the client including a title report, or was it the client’s choice not to proceed?
In Sathyanarayanan v Moberg 2026 NY Slip Op 50237(U) Decided on February 27, 2026
Supreme Court, Suffolk County Pastoressa…
Discovery Lapses, Dismissal and Attribution of Fault
PCO 1500 Inv., L.P. v Ahmuty, Demers & McManus 2026 NY Slip Op 30664(U)
February 25, 2026 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 158852/2025 Judge: James d’Auguste quickly telegraphs its decision by finding that dismissal was in no way attributed to departures by the attorneys.
“Defendant Ahmuty, Demers & McManus (“Ahmuty”) seeks…
What A Difference A Year Makes
In Sebastiano v Bamundo, Zwal & Schermerhorn LLP 2026 NY Slip Op 01145
Decided on February 26, 2026 Appellate Division, First Department Plaintiff was injured on an interior stairway which lacked treads. The case was lost either because the stairway did not need treads or because the plaintiff expert failed to convince the court that…
Some Not Responsible, Some Perhaps
In 538 Morgan Realty LLC v Law Off. of Aihong You, PC 2025 NYSlipOp 06639 December 2, 2025 the Appellate Division, First Department parses the responsiblity of several groups of attorneys. Some remain in the case.
“Plaintiffs alleged facts permitting a reasonable inference that the liquidated damages clause would have been found unenforceable had the…
Punitive Damages on Top Of Compensatory Damages and Legal Malpractice
Lee v Leifer 2026 NY Slip Op 30589(U) February 18, 2026 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 159786/2020 Judge: Sabrina Kraus brings up the question of why anyone would not answer a complaint.
“Around 2004, Plaintiff and nonparty Eddie Choi formed a venture to operate a japanese restaurant named “Kyoto” in Flushing…
Judiciary Law 487, Arbitration and Fraud
Jones Law Firm, P.C. v J Synergy Green, Inc. 2026 NY Slip Op 00840 Decided on February 17, 2026 Appellate Division, First Department is interesting as it covers Fraud, separate Judiciary Law 487 application as well as when a settlement is effectively compelled.
“The court properly concluded that the counterclaims and third-party complaint state causes…
Timely Claim, But No Proximate Cause
It’s rare to see a legal malpractice case in Civil Court rather than Supreme Court, if only for the lower jurisdictional damage numbers available. Here, the claim is potentially timely, given a broad view of “continuing representation” but is dismissed nevertheless on speculation or lack of proximate cause.
“”On a motion pursuant to CPLR 3211…
A $10 Million Insurance Policy, A Beneficiary and Legal Malpractice
Kushakow v Law Offs. of Joseph B. Rosenberg 2026 NY Slip Op 00882 Decided on February 18, 2026 Appellate Division, Second Department is both unusual and familiar in that esate maters and legal malpractice claims almost always start with the question of “whom are you to the estate?” It was almost always the deceased who…