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 case was widely reported, and we discussed it yesterday. From the Decision in Ideal Steel Supply Corp. v. Beil, 20519/06 ,Decided: July 3, 2007 Justice Peter J. Kelly QUEENS COUNTY
Supreme Court
"On or about December 11, 2001, plaintiff Ideal Steel Supply Corp. retained defendant the law firm of Ross and Hardies, LLP…
Here is a cross-border story about a Walgreen store, the Mass Land Court, legal malpractice, and discipline of attorneys.
"The state agency that oversees lawyers has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to discipline James P. Killoran for advice he offered and an emphatic promise he made during a 1999 Town Meeting, actions that paved…
Plaintiff attorney was retained by defendant Chemipal Company, and [unsuccessfully ?] tried a case for them. Fredericks sued Chemipal Company, who then brought in appellate attorney Nathan Dershowitz. Result? Lawyer loses, Chemipal Company wins, third-party legal malpractice case against Dershowitz dismissed. Fredericks v. Chemipal Ltd., 06 Civ. 966
Decided: July 6, 2007 District…
Attorney Eleanor Capogrosso is the subject of a decision of Justice Debra James, reported in today’s NYLJ. Rarely are litigants "enjoined" from bringing law suits without prior permission of the court, but this attorney apparently went too far. "After filing 16 lawsuits on her own behalf – eight pro se and eight using…
The NYLJ reports:
"Former Supreme Court Justice Lawrence I. Horowitz used his status as a judge to seek preferential police treatment for his girlfriend and to have authorities investigate the woman’s estranged husband, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct said yesterday.
The commission announced that Mr. Horowitz, who resigned on June 20, has signed a…
Jackson Lewis LLP reports this Federal Case from the DC Circuit which holds that they are taxable.
"DC Circuit rules that damages for non-physical injury are subject to federal taxation
Jackson Lewis LLP
USA
July 13 2007
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has resolved the constitutional question…
Plaintiff’s cause of action for negligent misrepresentation was dismissed as duplicitive in this 2nd Department case. Iannucci v Kucker & Bruh, LLP ;2007 NY Slip Op 06026 ;Decided on July 10, 2007 ;Appellate Division, Second Department
"The Supreme Court should have granted those branches of the defendants’ motion which were, in effect, pursuant to…
Steven Seagal is now suing Loeb & Loeb over the Julius Nasso incident. Loeb & Loeb has already won a determination that any legal malpractice case has to be arbitrated; this arbitration provision is found in its retainer agreement, and in the Nasso v. Loeb & Loeb case, got the AD to uphold the…
May a criminal defendant speak with his attorney during cross-examination and overnight? The rule, as reported by is reported by Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP .
:The Second Circuit recently clarified the law relating to communications between a defendant and his attorney during the defendant’s ongoing trial testimony. In U.S. v. Triumph Capital…
We have never heard anything like this. This attorney goes to trial, and has an indian MD linked up, in real time, and listening to the proceedings.
"U.S. lawyer Dorothy Clay Sims has started using medical experts in India for help in legal cases:
Sims has reduced [medical expert costs] by hiring medical experts…
