How much does one take on as attorney, and how does that scope of work affect legal malpractice litigation? In Douglas v. Dashevsky, SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, SECOND DEPARTMENT; 2009 NY Slip Op 4187; 62 A.D.3d 937, ; 880 N.Y.S.2d 667, plaintiff says that she was terminated, and was terminated while
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.
Choice of Map is Judgment Call in Legal Malpractice
What is obvious to one is a judgment call to another. in Noone v Stieglitz ;2009 NY Slip Op 01093 ; 59 AD3d 505] February 10, 2009 ;Appellate Division, Second Department we see a plaintiff involved in a motor vehicle accident. Defendant in that MV case claimed that it was forced out of its…
Legal Malpractice Action Dismissed on Impossibility Grounds
in Williams v Omrani & Taub, P.C. ;2009 NY Slip Op 51832(U) ;Decided on August 25, 2009 ;Supreme Court, Kings County ;Rivera, J. rendered a tri-partate decision, reviewing a dismissal motion pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(1) (a)(5) and (a)(7). Reading like a thriller, first the court denies dismissal on documentary grounds by the unusual reasoning:…
Bankruptcy and Legal Malpractice – III
This is part 3 of a series based on the case of ASTON BAKER, -against- CHARLES SIMPSON, ESQ., WINDELS MARX LANE & MITTENDORF, LLP, STANLEY GALLANT, GALSTER CAPITAL LLC, GARLSTER MANAGEMENT CORP., ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, AND JP MORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.,
Here the court discusses the "abstention" question, whether the court should permit state court…
Bankruptcy and Legal Malpractice – II
We reviewed this case in part yesterday. Here is the balance of the case, ASTON BAKER, , -against- CHARLES SIMPSON, ESQ., WINDELS MARX LANE & MITTENDORF, LLP, STANLEY GALLANT, GALSTER CAPITAL LLC, GARLSTER MANAGEMENT CORP., ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, AND JP MORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.,
Curiously, Footnote 3 seems to say that the entire case has…
Bankruptcy and Legal Malpractice
When may plaintiff bring a state court action for legal malpractice and when may it be removed, as a "core" proceeding, to US Bankruptcy Court. It’s an involved question, and ASTON BAKER, -against- CHARLES SIMPSON, ESQ., WINDELS MARX LANE & MITTENDORF, LLP, STANLEY GALLANT, GALSTER CAPITAL LLC, GARLSTER MANAGEMENT CORP., ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, AND JP MORGAN …
Fees, Escrows and Legal Malpractice
As we have reported before, sometimes legal malpractice cases arise by action of the plaintiff, and sometimes they arise after the attorney sues for legal fees. Courts often take the later situation as a "reflexive" or "defensive" maneuver, and may not always believe that the client is genuinely prosecuting a legal malpractice case so much…
Subrogation and Legal Malpractice – Part 1
The New York Court of Appeals determined that a medical insurance provider has the right to intervene in a personal injury case to protect its right to subrogation and to assert "lien" on the proceeds of the case. In a well researched article, J. Michael Hayes writes:
"Recent developments have changed the way that…
Legal Fees, Malpractice Counterclaims and Jury Trials
For as long as there have been attorneys, it seems that there have been fee disputes. Fee disputes and legal malpractice counterclaims go together like, well you fill in the simile…love and marriage, horse and carriage…
Here is a case from Nassau which illustrates that question of whether defendant counterclaminant has the right to a…
Notifying the Target Attorneys’s Carrier in Legal Malpractice
Often, the only way plaintiff knows whether target attorney defendant has legal malpractice insurance is by the name of the attorneys who answer the complaint. If they are attorneys who normally are retaied by legal malpractice insurance carriers, then plaintiff knows there is insurance. If not, then there is trouble brewing. What happens if the…