We predict a change in the focus of legal malpractice cases reflecting the economic changes going on today. Here is a case more indicative of the former red-hot real estate market in Manhattan. Plaintiffs buy two apartments, plan to combine them, are told that some outside space on a setback will be theirs, and then
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.
Judiciary Law 487 – The Oldest Statute in Law?
It’s not the 10 Commandments, and it’s not the Magna Carta, but as this Court of Appeals case demonstrates, it’s not far off. Amalfitano v. Rosenberg is a new Court of Appeals decision which traces Judiciary Law section 487 all the way back to 1275.
Deceit, or a chronic pattern of extreme deceptive practice…
Judiciary Law 487 and the Court of Appeals
We’ve written about Judiciary Law section 487 before, and have an article in the New York Law Journal awaiting publication. Like an appellate litigant who reads a new and important case the morning of oral argument, we came across the Amalfitano v. Rosenberg case from the Court of Appeals today. It is an opinion that traces…
A Comma here, a Paragraph There, $150 Million in Legal Malpractice
Rounding out the week in legal malpractice, this article caught our eye. Law firm represents company seeking to go national in the cable market. Advises in a transaction so large it gets its own nickname. In one of probably hundreds of document drafts two paragraphs go missing, and everything falls apart.
What secondarily caught the…
The Money is Lost, but is it Legal Malpractice
Much litigation arises from the "deep pocket" theory. Put in the best light, it might be said that a plaintiff has really been wronged, and now the search is on for the usual suspects. Put another way, someone has lost a lot of money, due to no fault of his own, and he would like…
Referring Attorneys and Legal Malpractice
Attorney Referrals are a significant part of the attorney compensation field, and some attorneys derive considerable fees from their practice of taking in a large catchment population, and then referring the cases out to attorneys in specialized fields. What is their potential liability?
Bloom v Hensel ;2009 NY Slip Op 00884 ;Decided on February…
Peeling Away the Layers of Legal Malpractice
The Fourth Department handed down four legal malpractice decisions this week, which is surely a record. Three were decisions without reasoning. The fourth, KEITH LONG, , v CELLINO & BARNES, P.C., THE BARNES FIRM, P.C., STEPHEN E. BARNES, ESQ., RICHARD J. BARNES, ESQ., ROSS M. CELLINO, JR., ESQ., 1620 CA 07-01737;SUPREME COURT OF…
A suspended Judge and Legal Malpractice Cases
How much money can be made in the business of incarcarating juviniles? Apparently, quite a bil. This Pennsylvania judge was suspended upon "accusations that two now-suspended Pennsylvania judges accepted $2.6 million in kickbacks in exchange for incarcerating juveniles at specific detention facilities " That’s bad. Now, from the ABA Journal, the spillover:
"Accusations that two…
Attorney Pays $ 200,000 in Legal Malpractice and Gets $ 1.2 Million
Here is the story of a three-way deal in a legal malpractice / overpayment of fees / municipal negligence case which we reported at the onset. In Lodi, California [I must admit that the CCR song quickly comes to mind] target attorney had represented the city in litigation, especially an underground pollution case, and claimed…
Legal Fee Suits and Legal Malpractice Cases
If one were to peruse the legal press, headlines seem limited to merger, layoffs and legal fee disputes. There is a definite tie-in to legal malpractice litigation. Lesson one by legal malpractice insurers to attorneys is that legal fee cases engender legal malpractice defenses.
Here, from Legal Profession Blog is yet another example: attorney who…