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 difficult question of privity, which is another way to say, does plaintiff have a relationship with the attorney such that he may sue?

In SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY APPELLATE DIVISION

CHARLES W. GEYER, on behalf of ONE WASHINGTON PARK URBAN RENEWAL
ASSOCIATES (OWPURA
),  v. PITNEY,

Jusuf Becovic, et al., Plaintiffs-Respondents-Appellants, v Poisson & Hackett, et al., Defendants-Appellants-Respondents.

3142, 118056/04

SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT

2008 NY Slip Op 2644; 2008 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2594

March 20, 2008, Decided
March 20, 2008, Entered

Plaintiffs were physically injured, and the placement and maintenance of a

John Napolitano, appellant, v Markotsis & Lieberman, et al., respondents. (Index No. 3514/05)

2007-04674

SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, SECOND DEPARTMENT

2008 NY Slip Op 2980; 2008 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2951

Plaintiff loses summary judgment motion for a case in which defendant represented him at trial, ultimately losing plaintiff’s case

Lisa A. Serradilla, et al., Plaintiffs-Respondents, v.Lords Corporation, et al., Defendants, Ronald Vargo, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT

2008 NY Slip Op 3092; 2008 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3037

April 8, 2008, Decided
April 8, 2008, Entered

This case involves plaintiffs who wanted

22 NYCRR 1215 is a section of the law that governs attorney fees and engagement letters or retainer agreements. Until recently, courts have had differeing interpretations of the penalty when an attorney seeks fees but has no retainer agreement or engagement letter.

The cases were decided in three different ways: the first allowed the attorrney

Here, from Anthony Lin of the NYLJ is a story of Donald Trump suing Morrison Cohen for legal malpractice.  Admirably, the story does not use the tag line, "you’re fired" anywhere.  Story:  Morrison Cohen represents Trump and a country club in a construction dispute and wins $ 2 million + along with attorney fees.  Now

In this Federal Case, Cobalt Multifamily Investors I, LLC v. Shapiro, 06 Civ. 6468, Decided March 28, 2008 ,District Judge Kimba M. Wood
U.S. DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK  

The Court ultimately determined that under the Wagoner rule trustee lacks standing, and that the bankruptcy trustee’s powers are limited.

"The court-appointed receiver (the