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.
ANDREW ORDON, Plaintiff-Appellant, -v.- KAREN L. KARPIE, and MURPHY & KARPIE, LLC Defendants-Appellees.
No. 06-3347-cv
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 7626
April 10, 2008, Decided
“Ordon retained Karpie to represent him in proceedings before the Connecticut Medical Examining Board ("CMEB") after a patient reported to…
Insurers who pay insureds for medical costs, or for damages sometimes seek the right to share in the proceeds of the insured’s cases. If an insured gets medical insurance coverage after an accident,] the insurance company would like to be reimbursed from the proceeds.
The right arises from the insurance contract, and sometimes by statute, …
Hinshaw reports that the Minnesota Supreme Court has determined the rules for legal malpractice liability to third parties, in a business setting. In New York, liability is generaly limited to situations in which the attorney issued an opinion letter relied upon by non-clients. Here the rule is similar, and set forth:
"The court held that…
The Daily News article relates the story of a penile implant patient whose surgery went wrong. He then went to a long island medical malpractice attorney who did not fil the case. Plaintiff’s attorney says that after the statute passed, the attorney wrote a letter saying: "After due reflectino, we are going to decline to…
Some combinations are simply counter-intuitive…ice cream and pickles, waffles and fried chicken, the US House of Representatives and legal malpractice. Once explained, they are clear as a bell. The South Carolina Appellate Blog explains how the US legislative body got involved in this legal malpractice case:
"In Spence v. Wingate, the South Carolina Court…
Law Com reports that two former clients have sued Howrey LLP and its partner Michael S. Dowler over a failed deal to purchase a patent. While normally this would not be of interest in a legal malpractice setting, the allegation is that the defendant demanded an ‘under the radar" deal for 505 of the net…
Frederick Rehberger, appellant, v Garguilo & Orzechowski, LLP, et al., respondents.
(Index No. 30120/05)
2007-05158
SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, SECOND DEPARTMENT
2008 NY Slip Op 3187;
April 8, 2008, Decided
Plaintiff’s Suffolk County case dismissed on 3211(a)(5) grounds, and reversed upon adequate showing of continuous representation.
Milton B. Shapiro…
We reported on this situation more than a year ago. Leeds Morelli & Brown apparently cut its own deal not to sue Prudential again, in exchange for a hefty legal fee paid to it. One of its clients, Linda Guyden, is trying to set aside an arbitration award on the basis that her attorney was…
Bankruptcy legal malpractice is again in the news. As the economy cycles through bankruptcy issues, attorneys advising large corporations become targets for the trustees as well as the creditors. Latest in the news is the Catholic Medical Center and McDermott, Will & Emery.
From Law.Com: "A bankruptcy trustee for Saint Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers of…
This New Jersey real estate case makes little sense, unless you read it as envy transformed into litigation. Plaintiff-seller decides to sell 6 lots for $ 2,000,000. Everyone follows the contract of sale, which provided for interim payments, penalty payments, and no assignments.
SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY APPELLATE DIVISION
MARIO ARGENZIANO and MARAGEN CORPORATION…
