The Appellate Decision in Steven Von Duerring, v. Hession & Bekoff, is so sparse that one has absolutely no idea what the case is about. When we turn to the Supreme Court case from which the appeal emanates we see that it is a legal malpractice arising out of a claim that
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.
The All Inclusive Arbitration Clause in Legal Malpractice
If thing go wrong, sue the attorney! It’s a familiar meme, yet there are more and more arbitration clauses found in retainer agreements, especially media representations and patent law. On the one hand, in NYS there are the mandatory fee dispute arbitrations, but that is now what we are thinking about. As an example: PROTOSTORM, …
Taking on Another’s Legal Fees
The first cousin to Legal Malpractice is the eternal question of legal fees. Who pays them? From whom may they be obtained? How does one calculate them? What is reasonable? Under which situations might an attorney forfeit them? Might one law firm be responsible to another when it says that it will cover the legal…
The Pleading Goes on in the Canestoga Legal Malpractice Case
We recently reported on this Case in SDNY, captioned STONEWELL CORP., and RICHARD GLADSTONE, Plaintiffs, -against- CONESTOGA TITLE INSURANCE CO., WILLIAM KOLSHORN, and JERSEYSEARCH TITLE SERVICES, INC., Defendants. – as consolidated with – CONESTOGA TITLE INSURANCE CO., WILLIAM KOLSHORN, and JERSEYSEARCH TITLE SERVICES, INC.,
As is common in Federal District Court cases, there…
A Fairly Rare Case On Appeal in Legal Malpractice
It’s fairly rare for defendant-attorney to move for summary judgment in a legal malpractice case, lose, and then lose at appeal. Why do defendants move for summary judgment ? Beyond the obvious answer that it is a shot that they can take without any downside, the general reason is that defendant believes that it can…
Legal Malpractice, Medical Malpractice and an Apology
Legal Malpractice is family to its cousin, Medical Malpractice. In either situation, a person has put faith in a professional, asking that a threatening problem be solved. It matters little to the client/patient whether the situation is an operation or a trial. in either, the problem is overwhelming and threatening. What happens when something goes…
Fees Between Attorneys and the Second Circuit
Infant Plaintiff is injured in a paper shredder, and goes to attorney 1. Attorney 1, who wisely understands that he lacks the special expertise to handle the case correctly in US District Court hands case off to Attorney 2. After a while attorney 2 speaks to a law firm even more experienced, and they together bring…
Resignation and the End of the Line in Legal Malpractice
Some states have mandatory legal malpractice insurance, but New York does not. Result? Plaintiffs who have suffered real damages at the hands of uninsured attorneys pursue them, and cannot collect their actual damages from the attorneys. Here is one sad example. Matter of Jobi
2010 NY Slip Op 01704 ;Decided on March 2, 2010 ;Appellate…
Complex Cases in Legal Malpractice
Legal malpractice seems to exist across the board everywhere an attorney interacts with a client. Like the New Yorker cartoon showing a 5 year old who has dropped an ice cream cone, with an adult standing above and asking "Do you need an attorney?" we see legal malpractice cases stitched in all settings.
Here in…
It’s Not When you Learn about it in Legal Malpractice
We are reminded yet again that the statute of limitations starts to run in legal malpractice on the day that the mistake is made. It’s not the day that you realize that a mistake was made. This issue arises mostly in transactional representations, such as the lease in this case. When there is litigation, then…