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.

Another report of the question of privity and legal malpractice, here in an executor-estate setting.

"In January 1994 the decedent Miguel Perez (hereinafter the decedent) commenced a medical malpractice action (hereinafter the underlying action) against Lutheran Medical Center (hereinafter Lutheran) alleging a failure to timely diagnose and treat his colorectal cancer condition. The decedent was

In this ‘il Kim Case the AD reversed and reinstated a judgment against her, based upon her attorney’s negligence. 

 "To vacate her default, the defendant Kimberly Jones, a/k/a "Lil Kim," was required to demonstrate a reasonable excuse for not opposing the plaintiff’s motion and a meritorious defense to the motion (see CPLR 5015[a][1]; Piton v

Being Sued – terrible

Losing the suit – worse

Jailed?    This story tells of the worst possibility.  "Three lawyers accused of bilking their clients in a diet drug settlement were jailed Friday after a federal judge agreed to delay their trial date but revoked their bond.

The attorneys, including two co-owners of Preakness winner Curlin

We reported on this case, based on the hews article.  Here is Siagha v. David Katz & Associates LLP, 603927/05 :

"This is a contract action to recover alleged damages concerning legal fees and expenses allegedly not included in the retainer agreement of plaintiff Omar Siagha ("plaintiff").

Plaintiff moves for an order (1) awarding

Trautenberg v. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, 06 Civ. 14211 reported today:

"Plaintiff David H. Trautenberg sued defendants the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, attorney Brad S. Karp, and attorney Daniel J. Toal (collectively "Paul Weiss"), for breach of fiduciary duty and violation of New York Judiciary

Reported today in the Indiana Law Blog:  Querrey & Harrow v. Transcontinental Ins. Co. (2/19/07), where the COA ruled: "Defendants-Appellees raise numerous issues, which we consolidate as: I. Whether the trial court erred in holding that Indiana allows an excess insurer to bring an action for legal malpractice against an insured’s attorneys. II. Whether