Surcharged as an executor, this attorney has an ongoing legal malpractice case against several sets of his own attorneys. In Alaimo v. Mongelli, we see several varieties of legal malpractice allegations. One of them is in contract for failure to undertake an appeal, which was paid for, and one is for straight negligence. The NYLJ
Andrew Lavoott Bluestone
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.
Was there Legal Malpractice in the Bear Stearns Takeover?
This report from the Wall Street Journal Law Blog suggests that JP Morgan may have had to raise its buying price from $ 2 to $10 because of legal malpractice. What was the legal malpractice? A sentence inadvertently left in the agreement, which required JP Morgan to guarantee certain trades.
Whether this is true or…
A Long List of Issues Leads to Trial in NJ Legal Malpractice
Clients often come to speak with a legal malpractice attorney, and concentrate on the mistakes made by their attorney. While there can be many mistakes, not all of them lead to a successful case. Here is an example of many mistakes in a NJ case in which, at the end, there may be no provable…
Several Appeals Later, Legal Malpractice Case Dismissed in NJ
This legal malpractice case from New Jersey illustrates an interesting point. DONALD ERICKSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JEFFREY S. LEONARD, ESQ., and HERSH, RAMSEY AND BERMAN, P.C., Defendants-Respondents.
Plaintiff’s attorney seems to have narrowed the issues after remand from an appeal, and narrowed them so much, that he lost a second motion for summary judgment. From reading…
Legal Malpractice in the Failure to Do Discovery?
Plaintiff, a kid on in-line skates, runs into debris at a construction site. He hires defendant attorneys to sue the construction defendants and the land owner for debris on a public sidewalk. First he loses against one defendant, and then, by res judicata against the other, Why did he lose?
If, on the one hand…
A Primer in Nebraska Legal Malpractice Litigation
This case Wolski v. Wandel is a well written, well thought out discussion of summary judgment motions in legal malpractice. Although the primary subject is the use of expert testimony in opposing a motion for summary judgment, this decision sets forth many aspects of Nebraska Legal Malpractice law.
What if they gave a Legal Malpractice Trial and the Jurors Didn’t Care?
The Madison Record regularly reports on legal malpractice cases within its geographical confines. Here is a long article on a current trial. Of interest? The juror’s attitude.
"Attorneys in the Thompson Coburn legal malpractice trial care deeply about constructive trust and fiduciary duty, but the jurors don’t seem to care at all.
On Thursday, March…
Median Legal Malpractice Verdicts in the Mid-Atlantic States
Here is a short report on legal malpractice verdicts in Maryland, Virginia and DC. They were:
"Metro Verdicts Monthly recently provided data on legal malpractice settlements and verdicts in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The median legal malpractice settlement/verdict in Washington D.C. was a whopping $262,500.00. In Virginia and Maryland, the median legal malpractice settlement/verdict…
NJ Legal Malpractice Case against Drinker Biddel Reinstated
NY Lawyer reports that a legal malpractice case against Drinker Biddel, dismissed on summary judgment, has been reversed and remanded for trial. In a double whammy, DB’s cause of action for legal fees has also been reversed.
"A New Jersey appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a claim that 630-lawyer Drinker Biddle committed malpractice that forced…
Morrison Cohen Legal Malpractice Case Continues
The $15 Million case by Mercantile Capital Partners Fund against Morrison Cohen has survived a motion to dismiss. The decision by Justice Ling-Cohan determines that the complaint is sufficient for now. "The gravamen of this legal malpractice claim is that defendant’s alleged failure to perfect plaintiff’s security interest and subsequent failure of the credit…