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.
Here is the Popper take on this strange GA legal malpractice case. Did the defendant attorneys really take a car case to trial without speaking with the defendant? Did they admit liability without his permission? Why did the jury award only 1/2 of the damages?
Was there a settlement of the underlying case for less…
Not in Florida, and not likely in New York either. Lender retained attorney to start a foreclosure. He did not. Lender started legal malpractice case, and assigned both the foreclosure, the loan, the mortgage, as well as the legal malpractice case. Florida court did not permit the suit, Hinshaw reports:
"Florida Supreme Court underscores…
Until three years ago a personal injury attorney knew that a trip and fail on a NYC sidewalk meant that a Big Apple map was needed. Then the law changed, and the attorney needed to know who owned the adjacent building. Now, a new wrinkle. The adjoining landowner is responsible for the sidewalk, but…
Here is a case, reported by Hinshaw in which a firm was required not only to disgorge fees based upon its malpractice, but had to pay the client’s legal fees generated in the dispute.
"In re SRC Holding Corp., f/k/a Miller & Schroeder, Inc., Debtor – Bremer Business Finance Corporation v. Dorsey & Whitney, LLP…
We were told early in life not to talk so much. This advice may have served the Larkin Law firm well in its dealings with a client. This report of a question certified to an appellate court, is an example.
"Madison County Circuit Judge Barbara Crowder wants appellate judges to decide whether an attorney-client relationship…
The question of whose file is it, comes up often in legal malpractice. The client wants the file back, the lawyers may want a bill paid, each knows that the file may contain valuable information and ammunition. Here is a report from Hinshaw on the Iowa solution, with a discussion of the majority and minority…
Attorney Fee disputes can be a landmine, a source of big problems, and a constant source of legal malpractice litigation. Here is yet another report of a Texas Case.
"For nearly six years, a prominent Dallas plaintiffs firm has battled a former client in an attempt to recover a contingent fee. But after a three-day…
We reported on this last month, but here is a Hinshaw report on a legal malpractice case in which an attorney lost a medical malpractice case in illinios, and at the same time failed to tell the client about a $1 Million offer. He is found liable to the client for the amount of the
Plaintiff wins a big medical malpractice verdict, more than $6 milliion, and then based upon this report from Julie Littky-Rubin everything went wrong.
"Marelia v. Yanchuck, et al., 32 Fla. L. Weekly D1966 (Fla. 2nd DCA August 15, 2007):
A woman sued the lawyers who represented her in a medical malpractice case involving…
Kevin O’Keefe will be addressing the ABA National Conference on Legal Malpractice, discussing law firm blogs and legal malpractice. His own blog, Lex Blog Blog discusses how a law firm might safely blog.
For Internal purposes of law firm
Identify who may blog
Identify technology issues and how they will be addressed
Software platform to…
