Silverstein v Gregory 2023 NY Slip Op 31939(U) May 30, 2023 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 151024/2022 Judge: Dakota D. Ramseur is an example of what we think is the most complicated of cases: a legal malpractice (or Judiciary Law 487 case) based upon a medical malpractice case. The facts, the
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.
Once A Charging Lien is Recognized…
Trafelet v Trafelet 2023 NY Slip Op 03563 Decided on June 29, 2023
Appellate Division, First Department is an unusual charging lien case in which the attorneys successfully obtain court determination of its fees, and is yet a defendant in a legal malpractice case. Fees and insurance indemnification are, of course, two different matters. …
Reversal on Appeal
Ofman v Tenenbaum Berger & Shivers, LLP
2023 NY Slip Op 03471 Decided on June 28, 2023 Appellate Division, Second Department is a case which reversed dismissal of a legal malpractice claim.
“In August 2011, the plaintiff retained the defendants to prosecute an action, inter alia, to recover damages for breach of contract against a…
Pocket Mortgages and Legal Malpractice
Real Estate and conflicts of interest are transactional situations rife with claims of legal malpractice, and Fields v Baker & Hostetler LLP 2023 NY Slip Op 50610(U) Decided on June 23, 2023 Supreme Court, New York County Reed, J. is no exception.
“Plaintiff Richard Fields (Fields) is a resident of the State of New York…
All Claims Lost For Failure to Identify Shortcomings
Murphy v Certain
2023 NY Slip Op 02978
Decided on June 06, 2023
Appellate Division, First Department
“The court properly dismissed the complaint for failure to state a cause of action. The claims for conversion or trespass to chattels were correctly dismissed because they do not sufficiently identify the property at issue (see Sporn…
A Twisted Set of Facts, But No Deceit
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 …
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…