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.
Yesterday we discussed medical treatment liens and when an attorney might become liable to pay them, even though the attorney did not deduct from the settlement proceeds when making the distribution.
Today, Joel Stashenko in the NYLJ reports passage of a bill to eliminate "double dipping" by public employees in the disability area. Specifically, "The…
Personal injury law requires doctors, doctor reports, doctor testimony and medical treatment of the plaintiff-clients. Clients rarely have the means to pay for medical treatment after an injury, yet need it. Because of this need a system has developed in which plaintiff-clients go to medical providers, who provide medical treatment and file a "doctor’s lien." …
Any place there are disputes over anything, legal malpractice questions lurk. One is reminded of the New Yorker cartoon in which a 4 year old has dropped his ice cream cone, only to have an adult ask if he needs an attorney.
in a far more serious vein, here is a legal malpractice case arising…
One of the paradoxes of the legal malpractice world is the number of pro-se plaintiffs. While there are some pro-se defendants [both top-tier and totally uninsured], pro-se plaintiffs are often present. Here, in Walter v Jones, Sledzik, Garneau & Nardone, LLP ; 2009 NY Slip Op 08003 ; Decided on November 4, 2009 ; Appellate…
Cohen v Engoron, 2009 Slip Op 32521 is a fascinating look at the lower end of legal malpractice litigation. In this case, plaintiff is an incarcerated inmate who tried to sue his attorney for the return of $ 8500 in legal fees. While being incarcerated was painful for plaintiff, his attorney suffered a worse fate…
Topless photographs, sexual harassment, "heavy-handed" negotiations, emotional distress to highly pregnant women – it all seems to be out of a TV show. Nevertheless, these are the elements of Abrams v. Pacile, Supreme Court, New York County, Justice Tolub. In this decision, printed in the NYLJ today, and soon to be on the Court’s website…
Dismissals are not always dismissals on the merits, and dissolved corporations are not always unable to sue in New York. In this legal malpractice case, we see the intersection of Chapter 11, Tax Law 203-a, CPLR 205(a) and Res judicata.
In Moran Enters., Inc. v Hurst ; 2009 NY Slip Op 07807 ; Decided on…
Attorneys regularly drop in and out of cases, and for the most part, there is no particular notice taken of the event. Here, in Soussis v Lazer, Aptheker, Rosella & Yedid, P.C. ; 2009 NY Slip Op 07823 ; Decided on October 27, 2009 ; Appellate Division, Second Department we see a wholly different result. …
Plaintiff and a buddy go to attorney to start a business. Attorney is retained, and eventually Plaintiff is the odd-person out. Attorney’s retainer agreement names only the buddy, and even though attorney sends letters to both Plaintiff and buddy, and creates documents which plaintiff and buddy sign, it is Buddy who comes out with 75%…
Matrimonial legal malpractice is typically all about the money – and the money is usually about equitable distribution. Money, or having to give it to someone else drives people insane. in this case it apparently drove the husband to solicit the murder of his wife. Luckily, the plan fizzled, and ended in divorce and equitable distribution…
