Here is the nightmare: you have a good case against an international hotel corporation for lack of security, and you have a badly injured client. Do you take the case or refer it to a law firm that has done this type of work before? As many attorneys know, sadly, trying to sue Club Med requires
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.
Legal Malpractice and Representation in Bankruptcy…It’s a little Complicated
Here, in acase reported from Texas by James (Sandy) McCorquodale we read of a creditor’s committee which wants the court to disqualify Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP from representing the bankrupt, alleging that they misfiled, filed late, and lost assets for the estate. For now, the court has refused to disqualify the firm. In re …
Changes to GOL 15-108 affect Legal Practice
Here is an article on the changes to General Obligations Law section 15-108 by Patrick D. Bonner, Jr.
"Section 15-108 of the New York General Obligations Law (GOL) is a statute near and dear to any practitioner defending personal injury or product liability lawsuits in New York. The statute establishes the rules for apportionment of damages…
Mistake upon Mistake in Legal Malpractice
Its bad enough to make mistakes, worse to make them while representing clients, and even worse when it comes in a legal malpractice case. Here is a case from Texas where the attorney lost a motion for summary judgment because he did not submit an expert affidavit on time.
Sprowl v. Dooley, No. 05-06-00359-CV (Tex.
North Dakota Legal Malpractice Insurance Disclosure
The State Bar Association of North Dakota has proposed a new rule that would require that members of its bar file an annual statement that confirms that the attorney has private clients and, if so, whether the attorney has or intends to obtain malpractice insurance. The North Dakota Supreme Court has put the proposed rule…
Did This Firm Tell Too Much in Legal Malpractice Case?
Legal malpractice case is brought and settled. Now, after " a legal malpractice suit against Dallas securities attorney Phillip W. Offill Jr. and his former firm settled, the parties involved seemed happy, but that satisfaction was short-lived. Now a Dallas firm that represented plaintiff Consolidated Sports Media Group in that legal malpractice case has filed…
In Japan they do things Differently
Here is a news release which tells us precious little about the legal malpractice case. Would a US newspaper have run this article without telling who the law firm which paid $ 19 million was?
"Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho Ltd. <6335> said Friday it will receive 19 million dollars to settle its dispute with a U.S.
Keno Operator Wins Legal Malpractice Case Yet Again
We reported on this case several months ago. Keno operator loses when"he got bad legal advice from attorneys with Omaha’s McGrath North Mullin & Kratz law firm when he sought to dissolve his former partnership with Robert Anderson in 1998. " Now after a reduction by the trial court, the appellate court has reinstated a…
An In-Court Settlement will be Binding
Settlements and the method by which they are reached are often very important in legal malpractice. Usually, the issue is whether the settlement truely reflects what plaintiff bargained for, or is the plaintiff merely dissatisfied? Here is a case from the 2d Circuit that comments on this problem. In court settlements are generally sacrosanct in…
New Law Solves a Prior Legal Malpractice Trap
The Court of Claims is the only court in which New York State may be sued, and of course, only New York State may be sued in the Court of Claims. It is often said that the Court of Claims is a statutory court with special rules. One of the rules was that a specific…