Eshaghian v Dorsey & Whitney LLP 2023 NY Slip Op 33102(U) September 6, 2023
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 154087/2020
Judge: Shlomo S. Hagler is the inverse of a common legal malpractice trope, siblings who act badly to each other for financial reasons which then devolves into legal malpractice claims over
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 “But For” Difference in Legal Malpractice
While proximate cause is always an element of torts, we believe that the additional element of “but for” causation is unique to legal malpractice claims. “An attorney’s conduct or inaction is the proximate cause of a plaintiff’s damages if “but for” the attorney’s negligence “the plaintiff would have succeeded on the merits of…
Successive Summary Judgment Motions
Genesis Merchant Partners, LP v Gilbride, Tusa, Last & Spellane LLC 2023 NY Slip Op 33130(U) September 6, 2023 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 653145/2014 Judge: Nancy M. Bannon illustrates the general rule against multiple motions for summary judgment, even after an appellate reversal.
“In this action to recover damages, inter…
No Collateral Estoppel, No Res Judicata
Van Ravenstein v Ponder 2023 NY Slip Op 33072(U) September 6, 2023 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 161420/2019 is an interesting opinion from Judge Shlomo S. Hagler in which he rejects defenses of collateral estoppel and res judicata. Often, in similar settings, these defenses succeed.
“In the underlying action, All in…
Hiring and Firing an Accountant and Continuous Representation
In Five Towns Pediatrics, P.C. v Billet, Feit & Preis, P.C. 2023 NY Slip Op 32328(U) July 12, 2023 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 157252/2018
Judge: Andrea Masley we see that plaintiff had a rocky course with its accountants. Claims of embezzlement, mistakes, hiring and firing abound. In the end claims…
Summary Judgment on An Accounting Malpractice Claim
NFGTV, Inc. v Lutz & Carr Certified Pub. Accountants, LLP 2023 NY Slip Op 50849(U) [79 Misc 3d 1241(A)] Decided on August 9, 2023 Supreme Court, New York County
Borrok, J. is the rare summary judgment win by a plaintiff. In this case, defendants’ own application to the IRS doomed the defense.
“NFGTV’s motion (Mtn.
Insufficient Allegations All the Way Around
Silverman v Greenberg 2023 NY Slip Op 32993(U) August 28, 2023
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 450304/2021
Judge: Louis L. Nock is a case in which Plaintiff strikes out. Three pitches, three strikes.
“In this legal malpractice action, Secured Worldwide, LLC (“Secured”), predecessor in
interest to American Diamond Mint LLC, and…
Where Should The Legal Malpractice Claim Be Brought
Kadah v Kadah 2023 NY Slip Op 32889(U) August 18, 2023 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 152026/2022 Judge: Richard Latin concerns a legal malpractice claim brought in New York concerning legal work performed in a Florida estate. Where should the claim be brought and if brought in NY is it materially…
Privity and the Estate Administrator
Kadah v Kadah 2023 NY Slip Op 32889(U) August 18, 2023 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 152026/2022 Judge: Richard Latin has an excellent discussion of how privity of contract, a general requirement in legal malpractice claims, can apply both individually and when the law firm is representing a person as an…
A Familiar Workers Compensation-Personal Injury Trap
Kohler v Polsky 2023 NY Slip Op 04373 Decided on August 23, 2023 Appellate Division, Second Department describes a familiar situation in which a construction worker, injured on the job, retains an attorney to file a Worker’s Compensation claim, and assumes that the attorney will also file a personal injury claim. Often, the WC attorney…