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.
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 fees determined…
Christian, son of Marlon Brando died last week, and the AP his former wife has now started a legal malpractice action concerning his will and codicils. "But his family requested the autopsy on Monday "based on his past drug history," Los Angeles County coroner’s Lt Fred Corral said.
The autopsy, including a toxicology analysis, was…
Small or Multi-billion dollar case, legal malpractice cases all rest upon the same three bases: deviation from accepted practice, proximate cause and damage. As an example, here is a smallish case from the Madison Record:
"A legal malpractice claim filed by Cydney Hollaway against Fairview Heights attorney Thomas C. Rich alleges she did not…
From an unpublished Illinois case, discussed by the Illinois Legal Malpractice Blog, we are reminded of the fact that a bankruptcy filing will generally cut off plaintiff’s right to bring any law suit, including the legal malpractice case. Two things that always bear review:
1. When one files bankruptcy, everything, including potential unpled causes of…
On some ocassions, the dissection of a case yields interesting insights. Here is a Second Department Case: Petersen v Lysaght, Lysaght & Kramer, P.C. , 2008 NY Slip Op 00472
Decided on January 22, 2008 ,Appellate Division, Second Department which illustrates several points:
1. Some cases are a problem from begining to end. In this…
We’ve reported on the widespread influence of Deleware corporate law. Many attorneys seemingly practice Delaware law without setting a foot there, without holding themselves out as Delaware attorneys. This happens when they advise corporate clients on how Delaware would act.
Here, in a Hinshaw report, is the collalary: Delaware exercising personal jurisdiction over an ever…
Its Idaho, and its Winter. However, this is not a weather blog. Here is a case illustrating the age old conflict of interest between the insured and its insurer. Here, the insured says that defendant attorney’s mission was to protect the insurance company, not the insured.
The Times-News reports: "St. Luke’s Magic Valley Regional…
Here is an Idaho Decision from the Supreme Court of Idaho, which discusses how the statements of an attorney, representing his client in a court proceeding. may be used against him later, as "admissions,"
"The issue is, whether an attorney’s statements in the course of representation fo a client may be used against that attorney…
Here is a New York Law Journal report of a legal malpractice case involving the White House, sitting judges, and other big players.
"Blackwater Security filed a $30 million malpractice suit against Washington, D.C., law firm Wiley Rein on Wednesday, alleging the firm made costly missteps in a wrongful death case brought on behalf of…
Many legal malpractice cases arise from failures to file a notice of claim against a municipality or against the state. The case law is rife with General Municipal Law mistakes, as well as Court of Claims Act errors. This case, which involves not New York but Louisiana, shocks the conscience.
