Reed Smith had a nice relationship with the Bair Foundation, a smaller religeous entity. They represented the foundation for a while, and did so amicably. However, when the foundation became a defendant in a discrimination law suit, and Reed Smith defended, the bill for legal services rose from an estimated $ 50,000 to $ 1
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.
Internet Security and Blogging Issues come from a Legal Malpractice Case
This story is becoming news. In a legal malpractice litigation, involving the Town of Manalapan, NJ suing over a land deal by a former public official, a blogger is now being pursued for information coming onto the blog site. Like the Flea case [read Eric Turkowitz’s series of articles in this new case has…
Medical Malpractice followed by Legal Malpractice
We’re republishing a blog blurb that unfortunately did not have a link to the original case. From what we can piece together, here is what happened. Plaintiff undergoes back surgery and emerges blind in one eye and damaged in the other. Plaintiff hires med mal attorney who sues on the theory of drug incompatibility. Attorney…
Wisconsin and Pennsylvania Legal Malpractice Statutes
In NY a convicted criminal defendant may not successfully sue his criminal defense attorney…unless he is exonerated. That, or a reversal of the conviction [the ability to demonstrate "innocence"] is necessary. In Wisconsin, the rule is in flux. Here is a case which discusses, without deciding, when the statute starts to run: on the date…
Civility in Law v. Religious Discrimination
When you start out reading this story, it cleaves to the age old complaint: Lawyers are less polite, and more business oriented than in the past. It’s no longer a profession, its a business. The shocker comes at the end of this particular story: biglaw litigating lawyer calls Federal Judge anti-catholic !
"Manhattan federal…
Legal Malpractice Statute of Limitations and the Discovery Rule in Deleware
In New York there is no recognizable discovery rule for the statute of limitations. For the most part, the statute starts to run on the day of the mistake, although it may be tolled for continuous representation, or fraud [which does not consist of merely hiding the malpractice], but in Delaware there is a specific…
Is Bribery the way out of Legal Malpractice Problems?
Mississippi seems like the wild west of litigation. When personal injury attorneys here speak of the Bronx with reverence, it pales in comparison. Here is a story of big tobacco, big tobacco litigation, big law and big bribes. This might even be a reason for senatorial resignation!
"An attorney who helped negotiate a multibillion-dollar settlement…
Losing on Both Ends
Here is a story from Kentucky. What caught our interest was the "case so good he couldn’t lose it"
"He has been called the lawyer "sued on both ends" — losing lawsuits filed against him by his client and by the Louisville surgeon his client unsuccessfully sued.
As the Kentucky Trial Court Review put it, Tennessee attorney…
40% Plus $23 Million Fee Permitted for Now
This attorney fee matter involves a huge real estate famiy fortune. It recalls the Goldman real estate family divorce. There the husband proudly declared that he owed his wife only $ 386 milion dollars in equitable distribution, not $ 786 million.
In Lawrence v. Miller the attorneys worked on this estate matter for an hourly rate which…
Ex Parte Interviews of Doctors Permitted by Court of Appeals…Are Attorneys Next?
Ex Parte interviews of Non-party doctors is the subject of todays Court of Appeals Ruling. Read the entire case, and note the many amicus briefs. This is a big and important case. Put simply, Surpeme Court is permitted to direct plaintiff to give defendant HIPPA authorizations which allow defendants not only the records, but…