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.
Legal Malpractice insurance is a vital component of doing business in New York. What attorney goes to sleep comfortably without it? Yet, carriers are always looking for a way out. Here is an example of the latest twist in NJ from Law.Com:
"A legal malpractice carrier is taking a hard line on the level…
It centers around a Charles M. Russell statue; what could be more quintessentailly Western. Real or Fake? The outcome of this case is a $1 Million verdict against the attorneys and $ 9 Million in Punitive damages. Hinshaw reports:
"Steve Morton and the international law firm that represented him had very strong, credible grounds to…
Our recurring theme is that legal malpractice may pop up anywhere in the world/attorney interaction. Here is an interesting situation we never envisioned. What does an estate attorney do about vintage firearms? What about that WW2 tommy gun up in the attic?
"Estate Planning for Grandpop’s Gun in the Chest
Joshua Prince, a law student…
Some states require disclosure of legal malpractice coverage [really non-coverage.] New York does not. California is debating the issue. From Law.Com:
"Deciding whether to require that attorneys tell clients when they don’t have malpractice insurance is proving extremely difficult for the California Bar Board of Governors.
After a confusing and contentious discussion Friday, board…
From Law.Con [sorry, we reprinted the entire blurb here]:
"Pillsbury Caught In Another Bankruptcy Conflict
Perhaps Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman needs to reevaluate its system for screening conflicts and disclosing material developments that may impact bankruptcy claims. Back in March, we mentioned that Pillsbury was the subject of a motion filed by the U.S. Trustee…
Arguments between insurers and reinsurers are a fertile area of litigation. Important decisions on attorney-client privilege have come from these cases, and in this particular report, Federal Ins. Co. v North Am. Specialty Ins. Co. ,2007 NY Slip Op 08391 ,Decided on November 8, 2007 ,Appellate Division, First Department , the issue of…
The Attorney judgment rule holds that no attorney may be held liable for a strategic decision which was reasonable both objectively and subjectively. This may include choices of questions at trial, selection of experts, choices of evidence.
Here is a story from Hinshaw, of a Michigan Case: Bowman v. Gruel Mills Nims & Pylman, LLP, 2007…
This case is all about Long Island law firms and a case against Computer Associates and Kaye Scholer. Plaintiff is reprsented by Tom Liotti, who is the defendant in a libel case we reported yesterday. Computer Associates and its employees are represented by anlther Long island law firm, Lynn & Gartner. Farrell Fritz rounds out…
Legal Malpractice can pop up in any number of situations, as we have said just last week. Here is a short blurb on a big dollar legal malpractice case in California, concerning Surfing Chicks, Paul Hastings, Kat House and trademarks.
"Too many ‘Surf Chicks’?
Los Angeles-based law firm Paul Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP has…
Hinshaw reports on Rudolf v. Shayne, Dachs, Stanisci, Corker & Sauer, 2007 WL 1213712 (N.Y. April 26, 2007) We discussed this case last April.
"The New York Court of Appeals recently held that a client was entitled to recover attorneys’ fees and expert witness costs incurred when his attorney’s error forced him to appeal…
