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.
Alan Birnbaum, appellant, v James Misiano, et al., respondents. (
SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, SECOND DEPARTMENT
2008 NY Slip Op 5638;
Beginning in the late 1990’s, the defendant attorney James Misiano represented the plaintiff, [*2] Alan Birnbaum, with respect to loans Birnbaum made, or was planning to make, to others. In…
Privity is an essential in legal malpractice, and application of this principal can lead to skewed results. As an example, attorney writes negligent will for decedent, which affects beneficiaries and the decedent’s estate. May beneficiaries sue? May estate sue? Sometimes not. Here, divorced wife is affected by the manner in which an attorney drafts a…
Judiciary Law 487 is a statute which defines a misdemeanor and creates a private cause of action, with treble damages,
§487. Misconduct by attorneys.
An attorney or counselor who:
1. Is guilty of any deceit or collusion, or consents to any
deceit or collusion, with intent to deceive the court or any party; or,…
The California Blog of Appeal discusses this amusing attempt by a target attorney to get out from under a legal malpractice case. Styles v. Mumbert is a California case in which…well, let Greg May describe it:
"You represent the defendant in a lawsuit. You don’t have time to handle his case — indeed, you admit…
Plaintiff retained a big name matrimonial firm to represent her. Then she hired a legal malpractice firm to sue the matrimonial firm. The legal malpractice case was dismissed. Apparently she did not want to pay the legal malpractice firm who moved for a quantum meruit fee hearing.
In 2008 NY Slip Op 5647, Eileen DeGregorio…
From Day on Torts we learn that the "Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that a plaintiff in a legal malpractice case must prove the collectibility of damages" The case is Paterek v. Peterson & Ibold, No 2006-1811 (Ohio June 18, 2008)
We’ve written about this in the past, both here and in the New…
Veras Investment Partners, LLC, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Defendant-Respondent.
3812N, 600340/07
SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT
2008 NY Slip Op 5563;
June 19, 2008, Decided
The court granted a motion by defendants requiring plaintiffs to divulge attorney client discussions ‘granting defendant’s motion for…
MITCHELL PHILLIPS AND DALE PHILLIPS, PLAINTIFFS-RESPONDENTS, v MORAN & KUFTA, P.C., JOSEPH J. MORAN, ESQ., RICHARD J. KUFTA, ESQ., DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS, ET AL., DEFENDANT.
718 CA 07-02711
SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FOURTH DEPARTMENT
2008 NY Slip Op 6025;
July 3, 2008, Decided
JUDGES: PRESENT: SCUDDER , P.J., HURLBUTT , SMITH , GREEN…
In this Lexology report, the lawfirm Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP argues that a fall decision of the Court of Appeals re-affirms the principal that a legal malpractice claim might proceed even in fhe fact of documents signed by plaintniff or its predecessor. The facts of Bishop v. Maurer 2007 NY Slip…
Law.com reports that the Proskauer Rose legal malpractice case continues, but that a discovery dispute over deposition documents has been decided in Proskauer’s favor.
"Proskauer Rose will not be required to turn over internal working papers in a legal malpractice suit filed by Boca Aviation, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday.
Documents used…
