Since the Court of Appeals decided Amalfitano v. Rosenberg we have seen an upswing in reported successful Judiciary Law 487 cases. Here in Moormann v Hoerger ;2009 NY Slip Op 06518 ;Decided on September 15, 2009 ;Appellate Division, Second Department plaintiff loses legal malpractice, but avoids summary judgment on the Judiciary Law cause
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.
Overlapping Fraud and Malpractice Claims in Legal Malpractice
In Tatum v. Oberg; UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT;2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82208;September 3, 2009 we see a spirited discussion of the overlap between fraud claims and negligence, as well as a discussion of the overlap between breach of contact claims and negligence. It is a 2d Circuit case decided…
Opposing a Motion for Summary Judgment by Plaintiff in a Legal Malpractice Case
In Felt v. Van Alstyne we see an interesting real estate-legal malpractice case, one which is, unfortunately, no so uncommon. Plaintiff owns 51 acres of property in Greene County and wants to sell a portion, 6.1 acres. The balance of 45 acres or so, which is unimproved, is to be sub-divided and kept. Defendant attorney…
The Increasing Importance of Breach of Fiduciary Duty in Legal Malpractice
In law, sometimes a single case decision opens the flood gates. This is an oft-heard argument, with a rarely seen result, yet in legal malpractice the Ulico v. Wilson Elser, 56 AD3d 1 (1st Dept, 2008) case seems to have accomplished the re-awakening of "breach of fiduciary duty."
As an example, see Colucci v. Arisohn…
Irony In Legal Malpractice
When practitioners in Legal Malpractice stay in the area long enough, older cases they handled come back to save or haunt them. A prime example is DeNatale v Santangelo ; 2009 NY Slip Op 06398 ; Decided on September 8, 2009 ; Appellate Division, Second Department . Here the defendant law firm wins dismissal based…
Further Lessons in Legal Malpractice from Kirk
Continuing from yesterday, what is the relationship between legal malpractice litigation and breach of fiduciary duty? One reflexive answer is that the broad category of legal malpractice litigation, which requires a demonstration of deviation, proximate cause, "but for" causation and damages contains breach of fiduciary duty as a subset. Often, alternative claims of breach of…
One Case With Several Lessons in Legal Malpractice
Sometimes a court’s decision will simply tell how the case came out. Sometimes a decision can teach a lesson; in this case one decision teaches several lessons in Legal Malpractice. KIRK , -against- HEPPT, 05 Civ. 9977;UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK;2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80989;September 1, 2009, Decided…
How Close is Privity in Legal Malpractice and Elsewhere?
Sometimes we find a stimulating discussion of a principal of legal malpractice in decisions concerning other professions. In this case Sykes v RFD Third Ave. 1 Assoc., LLC ;2009 NY Slip Op 06387 ;Decided on September 8, 2009 ;Appellate Division, First Department ;Moskowitz, J. we find a discussion of privity and third-party beneficiary law…
Failure to Communicate a Settlement Offer and Legal Malpractice
In "Boglia, v Greenberg, et al., ; SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, SECOND DEPARTMENT;2009 NY Slip Op 5278; 63 A.D.3d 973; 882 N.Y.S.2d 215; 2009 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5183 the court writes:
"The client retained the attorneys to represent her in a matrimonial action. After terminating the attorneys’ representation, the…
Charging Liens, How they are Calculated and How to Avoid Legal Malpractice
In MELNICK v. CARY PRESS,;No 06-CV-6686 (JFB) (ARL);UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK;2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77609; August 28, 2009, Decided we find an excellent discussion of the rules of attorney fee liens under the Judiciary Law.
"Under New York law, an attorney who is discharged is statutorily entitled…