Tueme v Lezama 2023 NY Slip Op 03036 Decided on June 7, 2023 Appellate Division, Second Department is practically a gothic novel, with allegations of false testimony, false accusations and perjured testimony all in aid of getting a better divorce settlement. The Appellate Division reversed and ended the case. Here, we discuss the Judiciary Law
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.
A Court of Appeals Allusion to Legal Malpractice
While this criminal procedure case about the assignment and adjudication of sex offender levels has nothing to do with legal malpractice, an introduction to the dissent sets an interesting illustration of how legal malpractice is really different from almost all other areas of the law. People v Weber 2023 NY Slip Op 03301 Decided on…
Send It All to Surrogate’s Court
Duckles v Zatkowsky 2023 NY Slip Op 31942(U) June 9, 2023 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 156173/2022 Judge: Mary V. Rosado gives a procedural explanation of how to group a set of legal malpractice and executor self-dealing claims together before one tribunal.
“This case arises out of alleged legal malpractice committed…
So Much Real Estate Legal Malpractice Litigation
New York, and especially Manhattan are breeders for real estate legal malpractice litigation. High value real estate transactions, and the variety/complexity of those transactions inevitably lead to legal malpractice cases, each with its own very high value. 35 W. 26th St. Realty, LLC v Norris, McLaughlin, & Marcus, P.C. 2023 NY Slip Op 31851(U) June…
Defendant Fails To Submit An Expert Opinion
North Flatts LLC v Belkin Burden Goldman, LLP 2023 NY Slip Op 02954 Decided on June 01, 2023 Appellate Division, First Department very quickly affirms a denial of summary judgment on two grounds. One was a premature motion for summary judgment was improper and the second was that no expert opinion was offered in support…
Legal Malpractice or Avoiding Criminal Liability?
Floral Park Ophthalmology, P.C. v Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, LLP 2023 NY Slip Op 2863
Decided on May 31, 2023 Appellate Division, Second Department shows how the courts take a deep dive into attorney defenses to legal malpractice claims. With a vigor not found in other areas of negligence, attorney defenses to legal malpractice are scrutinized…
No Need to Consider the Sufficiency of Opposition
We believe (based on anecdotal reading of legal malpractice decisions) that a more than expected number of summary judgment motions are granted in favor of attorneys in legal malpractice settings. Gardner v Sacco & Fillas, LLP 2023 NY Slip Op 02865
Decided on May 31, 2023 Appellate Division, Second Department is an example of the…
Conflict, Yes. Fraud, No
Federal Ins. Co. v Lester Schwab Katz & Dwyer, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 07149 [211 AD3d 527] December 15, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department shows what happens when large local (but not necessarily Big Law) firms handle litigation matters and have conflicts.
“Supreme Court correctly denied LSKD’s motion to dismiss the cause of action…
Estate Legal Malpractice Guidance
Alford v Katz 2022 NY Slip Op 05397 [208 AD3d 1587] September 30, 2022 is the
Appellate Division, Fourth Department’ guidance on when and how a decedent’s estate can sue for legal malpractice.
“Memorandum: Plaintiff commenced this legal malpractice action as executor of and on behalf of the estate of her father, Robert J. Genco…
A Rare Estate-Legal Malpractice Case Survives
Stevens v Wheeler 2023 NY Slip Op 02747 Decided on May 18, 2023 Appellate Division, First Department is the rare Estate legal malpractice case that survives a dismissal motion. It adequately demonstrates standing, proximate damages and that “but for” the choice of law provision, there would have been a better outcome for the Estate. A…