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.
Law Com reports a further spin off of the QualComm litigation problems.
"It’s something no lawyer wants to get — a ruling from a federal magistrate saying, essentially: “come on down to court and explain to us why you don’t think you should be sanctioned for your behavior.” But that’s what lawyers at Day Casebeer…
Law blog reports this story of an attorney who saved a life.
"This past weekend, a Lerach Coughlin lawyer, Paul Geller (pictured, left), a name partner at the firm and head of its Boca Raton, Fla., office, saved a pregnant woman and her small schnauzer, Midnight Duke, from two attacking pitbulls"
"We caught up with…
Times for notice of motion and cross-motion changed in July. We reported it, and here is an article from the NYLJ by Howard Shafer which gives a comprehensive outline.
"The New York State Legislature passed an act amending New York Civil Practice Law and Rules R. 2214(b) and 2215.1 These recent amendments to the New…
In this New Jersey Case , DIANNE VIGLIONE v.CHRISTINE FARRINGTON, ESQ., we find the NJ Supreme Court discussing the emotional and cerebral aspects of matrimonial litigation, and giving the plaintiff a little breathing room in bringing this legal malpractice case. Does this portend a different rule for matrimonial legal malpractice cases in NJ?
Great emotional…
Here is a comprehensive and well written case from NJ which discusses when a statute of limitations starts to run there. NJ, unlike NY has a "discovery" statute of limitations. DIANNE VIGLIONE v. CHRISTINE FARRINGTON, ESQ.,
"A legal malpractice action is based on negligence. Grunwald v. Bronkesh, 131 N.J. 483, 492 (1993). A cause of…
In a different but related case, Anthony Lin of the NYLJ goes on to tell about "top private equity firm Thomas H. Lee has sued Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw for $245 million for allegedly misrepresenting the financial shape of commodities brokerage Refco prior to Lee’s acquisition of a controlling interest. Seward & Kissel is…
For a while, a million dollar or a multi-million dollar case was a big number. Imagine, not just several hundred thousands! Now, Anthony Lin of the New York Law Journal reports that Akin Gump has been sued by a hedge fund client for $ 4 Billion. Will we be seeing larger than life numbers like this…
Its often said that jailed defendants have a little too much time on their hands. Here is a prime example. This defendant was convicted of trying to kill his wife. He seems to have used poor workmen. One would be killer was arrested for tresspass; one had a battle with the wife, but agreed…
All right, its not strictly legal malpractice, but this story about Family Court Judges bickering and fighting, slamming files and being childish should remind us that these cases involved parents and kids. Family Court: they must have involved custody and support. Who was the victim here?
"One instance involved a sharply disputed tussle with Judge…
Here is an interesting blog blurb from the North Carolina Appellate Blog on how an innocent client was seriously hurt by the acts of its attorney.
"Today the Court of Appeals (COA) issued a harsh reminder that a client is, under the law of agency, responsible with the bad conduct of its counsel in…
