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.
This case from New Jersey illustrates the border line between behavior that is so bad that an expert is not needed at trial to testify on whether there was a deviation, and behavior that is bad, but still requires an expert. The NJ court found in TARUTIS, v. ALAN ACKERMAN and GREGORY WISOTSKY, that:
"No expert…
The politicians are in Iowa, the primaries started there, and today we report on a legal malpractice and recusal case in Iowa. Here two different strands of problems for the legal malpractice plaintiff are twisted together. One of the strands concerns the judges comment about the legal malpractice plaintiff and defendant: "one is dishonest, and…
This article from The Statesman.com discusses news about a special group of lawyers, appointed by the Texas Supreme Court who are to vote today. They are looking at " a proposal that could require lawyers to tell clients whether they have malpractice insurance.
The idea would seem to have a lot going for it. Legal malpractice insurers…
Wiley Rein reports on a case in the Ninth Circuit, arising in Arizona concerning prior acts exclusions in legal malpractice coverage:
"The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, applying Arizona law, has reversed a district court’s entry of summary judgment in favor of a professional liability insurer whose policyholder failed to list…
In re MICHAEL ROY BRESSLER, Defendant. WILLIAM FORREST and SHAWN STEIBEL, Plaintiffs, v. MICHAEL ROY BRESSLER, Defendant. STEVEN STRUM, Plaintiff, v. MICHAEL ROY BRESSLER
Here is a long SDNY Bankruptcy case discussing a series of legal malpractice proceedings, malicious behavior and non-discharageablity.
"Strum objects to granting Bressler a discharge under section…
In this pro-se v. pro-sen legal malpractice case between a pro-se plaintiff from Queens and a pro-se defendant from New Jersey, we see a discussion of the correct way to challenge venue. Kuzmin v. Nevsky, brought in New York County is moved to Queens:
"The plaintiff commenced this action in the Supreme Court…
Here is a "brief chambers opinion" from Judge Newman: Bennett, petitioner v. Mukasey, respondent ,U.S. COURT OF APPEALS, SECOND CIRCUIT. As you may guess, it was not Mukasey whose legal work was left unfinished. Bennett’s attorney filed a petition, and then when the legal fees went unpaid, allowed it to be dismissed. Only a…
Here is an Indiana Case in which the concept of equitable subrogation is attempted in a legal malpractice case. Here, insurer seeking equitable subrogation loses. In Queerey & Harrow LTD v. Transcontinental Ins. Co. two hurdles face the insurer: privity and policy. Attorney represents insured, and not carrier, much less the more distant excess carrier. …
Attorneys for insurance carriers are rarely the subject of a legal malpractice case…it is much more often plaintiff’s attorney. The Poppe law firm blog reports this case of a car insurance defense attorney who goes to trial on the underlying auto accident without ever meeting with the client, and to make matters worse, admits liability…
In New York legal malpractice litigation, the defendant attorney may not ask for a set off in the amount of the hypothetical contingent fee. That is, defendant attorney is sued for losing a personal injury action argues that the damages must be reduced by one-third, the amount plaintiff would have had to pay to an attorney…
