An attorney must carefully and assiduously guard his client’s confidences, secrets and communications with the attorney. This remains true until the attorney has to defend himself. Must this defense be to criminal charges, or to ethical charges only? The answer is set forth in a recently decided case in the First Department.Hélie v McDermott,
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.
From the Frying Pan into the Fire in Legal Malpractice
A tip of the blogging hat to Shareholder Oppression Blog which reports this Texas case in which business is looking for investors and plaintiff comes along. His investment is somewhat complicated, and the company’s attorney suggests some changes. Here is the opinion. While the attorney was not held in this case, we expect that the…
Legal Malpractice in Filing Too Early?
Typically, legal malpractice follows filing too late; here there may be legal malpractice in filing too early. This situation is more common than one might imagine, and in the current economic circumstances, may re-occur needlessly.
The Southeast Texas Record reports the facts of a case similar to ones we have seen. Plaintiff has a dischargable…
Bare Knuckle Politics and Legal Malpractice in New Jersey
Town buys property previously owned by bus company. They plan to remediate the property, and turn it into a park. Town’s Attorney is Democratic. Town board is Republican majority, soon to change after election. Result? Attorney is potentially a legal malpractice defendant, solely dependent on whether Republicans or Democrats have the majority.
The Story, found…
Intransigence or Legal Malpractice?
Continuing in the turnabout tradition of legal malpractice defense, wherein the defendant attorney takes on the coloration of its previous adversary in order to defeat a "case within a case’ is this matter: Lederer de Paris Fifth Ave., Inc. v Jordan & Hamburg, LLP ; 2008 NY Slip Op 09462
Decided on December 2, 2008  …
A Very Complicated Real Estate Legal Malpractice Case
One of the problems in figuring out a legal malpractice case by reading an appellate decision, is that even when the court gives a detailed set of facts, thee are many connections either not apparent or missing. Here in Ito v. Suzuki, 2008 NY Slip Op 9437, Decided December 2, 2008, Appellate Division, 1st Department…
Recusal, Political Donations and Legal Malpractice
During the campaign season, news reports ouline the amounts of money individuals donate to candidates, and there are websites which track donations by name. Recently in West Virginia, a legal malpractice case involving the Massey Coal company there made news when the US Supreme Court decided to hear the question of whether campaign contributions required recusal…
Plaintiff’s Partial Success does not Rule out Legal Malpractice Case
Plaintiff claimed pay and benefits from the Board of Education. Apparently there is a two part process for such claims. The first thing to do is to request a hearing. Later, one may bring an Article 78 proceeding.
In Leticia Abreu v Jose A. Quesada,4489, 6884/05; SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST…
Appellate Legal Malpractice
In STEPHEN F. BRUMMER, , v THE BARNES FIRM, P.C., CELLINO & BARNES, P.C., STEPHEN E. BARNES, ROSS M. CELLINO, AND RICHARD J. BARNES, SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FOURTH DEPARTMENT;2008 NY Slip Op 8831; 2008 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8924 we see a discussion of legal malpractice cases centering on…
Referring Attorney May be Held in Legal Malpractice
Attorney A refers a case to Attorney B, and agree that they will share in a contingent fee between them. Ethical issues aside, may Attorney A, who has not committed malpractice nor taken an active role in the case, be held responsible for Attorney B’s malpractice?
Rosenstrauss v Jacobs & Jacobs ;2008 NY Slip…