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 attorney was working for the local township and was sued. Now, News Transcript reports that he might have a political prosecution defense, and may have either shielded, hid or voided his legal malpractice insurance.
"Ajudge’s ruling in Manalapan’s lawsuit against a former township attorney leaves both sides preparing for a possible trial.
On…
Reported in today’s NYLJ by Joel Stashenko, is the Court of Appeals affirmance of a dismissal in an estate legal malpractice case.
"The state Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the dismissal of a legal malpractice action against the firm formerly known as Goodkind Labaton Rudoff & Sucharow. Jack E. Maurer, who died in 2005…
This Indiana Legal Malpractice Case dismissal is reversed on appeal, and remanded for further proceedings is a primer on matrimonial malpractice, the Indiana standard of care, and summary judgment procedure there.
In this upstate Legal Malpractice Case, plaintiffs entered into a high stakes high risk real estate and mortgage deal with sellers, who were encumbered and hounded by the IRS, County tax liens, and other debts. Sales, mortgages, liens and law suits later the results of a legal malpractice case:
"It is undisputed that prior…
Here is a further article on a $ 19 Million settlement in a Japanese American anti-dumping case arising from discovery mistakes by Perkins Coie.
"Perkins Coie reached a multimillion-dollar settlement last month with former client Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho, a manufacturer of large newspaper printing presses. The Japanese company sued two of the firm’s Washington-based partners…
This is an estate legal malpractice case in which "In 1993, nonparty Ricki Singer created an irrevocable inter vivos trust for the benefit of herself and her son as a remainderman, with plaintiff Frieda Tydings, her aunt, designated as the sole trustee. The trust agreement did not require plaintiff to offer an accounting, nor is…
A trove of photos, including the famous Marilyn Monroe up-draft photo are the res over which the Shaw family fought for years. Father against son, sisters against brother… Finally it ended, with an Appellate Decision which sets forth the attorney rights to billing, doubling of bills and judiciary law liens.
"Over the course of his…
Law firm is sued for legal malpractice. May they deduct their unearned contingent fee from the malpractice award? On the one hand, it seems that plaintiff may have a windfall. It would never have walked away with 100% of the verdict had defendants been successful. On the other hand, why should the defendant earn a…
Effective immediately, City courts now follow the Supreme Courts in summons filing requirements. Now, the summons must be filed withi 120 days, according to a new Administrative Order of the Chief Administrative Judge.
This report notes that $ 35 million was too little a payout to the overcharged clients of the John M. O’Quinn law firm.
"An arbitration panel has ordered John M. O’Quinn’s firm to pay a little more to a class of 3,450 former breast implant clients who allege O’Quinn’s firm overcharged them for expenses.
In…
