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.
In a familiar setting, this time the case is receiver v. former attorney. Other times it is bankruptcy trustee v. attorney. Southwest Exchange, a former Nevada financial company involved in litigation and in receivership ended 2007 owing $98 million to 130 real estate investors.
Now, in this familiar setting the receiver is suing the law firm of…
To what extent may a legal malpractice defendant seek disclosure of privileged discussions? The general answer is if they are "at issue" in the legal malpractice. Here in the Akin Gump legal malpractice case is a good example. From Law.Com:
"Manhattan appeals court has narrowed the scope of discovery Akin Gump Strauss Hauer &…
As part of the "but for" rule, a hypothetical judgment which plaintiff would have won, except for the attorney’s mistake, is the measure of damages in legal malpractice. We have written about this in the New York Law Journal. [4/20/07] The defense of collectibility is that even if successful in the case below, plaintiff…
Decedents, Estates, Administrators, Lawsuits. This area of legal malpractice is extraordinarily twisted and difficult when asserting privity. Take for example the question of an executor suing the decedent’s attorney [who prepared the will] or the estate’s attorney [who offered the will for probate.] They are not necessarily the same person, and different statutes of limitation…
We reported on this Pennsylvania case last week, having come across several previously unknown words in the decision and article, such as prothonotary. Here is a follow up article in which the judge recuses himself after the verdict.
"Luzerne County President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. has recused himself from making post-trial rulings in…
Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog reports that a huge class action legal malpractice case against DLA Piper Rudnick has been dismissed. Plaintiff’s and defendants had entered into a tolling agreement that was amended and went on for several years. This case was valued at over $ 19 million dollars. After several amendments of the tolling agreement…
Here, we have Section 130 and Rule 11. In South Carolina, there are frivolous law suit penalties and sanctions too. Ex Parte Gregory v. Malloy. is the rather unflattering story of one legal malpractice attorney who went ahead and started a ridiculous suit, all for naught.
Plaintiff is injured in an automobile accident case…
In New York, there is no absolute requirement to appeal a negative outcome prior to bringing a legal malpractice action, nor is there a requirement "not to settle" a case prior to bringing a legal malpractice case. The standard is whether plaintiff was "effectively compelled" to settle.
Here is a Florida Case, Technical Packaging v. …
This is the type of case that gives litigation [and especially legal malpractice litigation] a bad name. Phung v. Summerville is a well written, reasoned NJ decision which discusses an inexplicable situation. Plaintiff has a nice 12 unit building in Elizabeth NJ. She agrees to sell, but then makes unreasonable demands of the buyers. They…
In New York a Notice to Admit is a discovery device which is used, but which has a small part in the panaply of discovery weapons. Failure to admit that which is later provded is subject to sanctions and costs, but nominal costs are the usual outcome.
Here, in a report from California Attorney’s fees blog…
