These are the two lessons found in Marcum LLP v L’Abbate, Balkan, Colavita & Contini, L.L.P. 2023 NY Slip Op 06443 Decided on December 14, 2023 Appellate Division, First Department an ironic case in which a major legal malpractice defense firm was sued for legal malpractice and they were defended by a friendly competitor major
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.
JUDICIARY LAW 487 AND ATTORNEY BILLS
Holland & Knight LLC v Walsam 316, LLC 2023 NY Slip Op 33748(U)
October 17, 2023 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 654470/2022 Judge: Dakota D. Ramseur has a third lesson in attorney billing litigation. How does a Judiciary Law 487 defense to the bills fare?
“In November 2022, plaintiff Holland &…
Attorney Bills and Account Stated
Holland & Knight v. Walsam,316 LLC, , which we discussed on Monday December 11, 2023 has three lessons about attorney billings. The first is how electronic research monthly fees to the law firm can be attributed to the client. The second, which we highlight today is how the account stated principle works in favor of…
Overhead v. Out-of-Pocket Expenses
Holland & Knight LLC v Walsam 316, LLC 2023 NY Slip Op 33748(U) October 17, 2023
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 654470/2022
Judge: Dakota D. Ramseur cover three important areas in legal malpractice. The first is how law firms may charge clients in a charging lien or a fee claim for…
Material Facts Alleged in the Complaint Were Not Facts At All
May Dock Lane, LLC v Harras Bloom & Archer, LLP 2023 NY Slip Op 06244 Decided on December 6, 2023 Appellate Division, Second Department illustrates the depth to which the Courts and the AD will go in considering a CPLR 3211 motion. We submit that this depth is not matched in medical malpractice cases, nor…
A Single Egregious Act is Enough
Suzuki v Greenberg 2023 NY Slip Op 05455 Decided on October 26, 2023
Appellate Division, First Department is the extremely rare successful Judiciary Law 487 claim. The AD noted that in the First Department a single egregious act can be sufficient, and that no “chronic pattern” is required as it is in the Second Department.…
Both Breach of Contract and Violation of Judiciary Law 487 Reversed on Appeal
Salus v Berke 2023 NY Slip Op 06183 Decided on November 30, 2023 Appellate Division, Third Department is a case on the correct application of Judiciary Law 487 claims that an attorney took too much of a fee in a contingent representation.
“Plaintiff Gregory J. Salus is the beneficiary of the residuary clause of the…
A Cross-State Real Estate Legal Malpractice Case Survives
Huli Ma v Hui Chen 2023 NY Slip Op 06031 Decided on November 22, 2023
Appellate Division, Second Department is a Connecticut and New York legal malpractice claim that the attorney was also a business partner with Plaintiff.
“In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for breach of fiduciary duty, legal malpractice, fraud, and…
No Harm, No Foul in a Legal Malpractice Case
Santaro v Finocchio 2023 NY Slip Op 05836 Decided on November 17, 2023 Appellate Division, Fourth Department illustrates the inherent bias towards attorneys that courts have always taken. Not forgetting that attorneys write and legislate the rules, which are then applied and considered by attorneys who are judging other attorneys, it is no surprise that…
Timely, But Ultimately Insufficient
Roedelbronn v Borstein & Sheinbaum LLC 2023 NY Slip Op 05670 Decided on November 09, 2023 Appellate Division, First Department demonstrates the interplay between appeals (and other findings) in the underlying case and success in a subsequent legal malpractice case. Here, the court initially found that the continuing representation doctrine successfully tolled the statute of…