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.
While not strictly legal malpractice, this case deals with arbitration of professional fees and accounting malpractice. The kicker? It involvs the E-Street Band drummer.
"Gursey’s retainer agreement contained an arbitration provision that provided for mandatory arbitration of “[a]ny controversy, claim, or dispute relating to . . . unpaid fees for professional services.” Further, the arbitration…
We have all been faced with a motion that is not so well written or supported. This case,Root v Brotmann, 2007 NY Slip Op 05353 ,Decided on June 19, 2007 ,Appellate Division, First Department illustrates the principal that its not right to file deficient papers, and then try to paper over the holes with…
This report of proceedings in the Qualcomm case is the exception to the rule of making no admission absent a gun to the head. At stake are attorney fees in a huge patent case.
"“Lawyers can make mistakes,” said Bill Boggs, Qualcomm’s new lead attorney in the case.
He explained how the San Diego company…
We recently reported on a federal deposition sanction case in which the attorney was sanctioned. Here in Cameron Industries v. Mother Work plaintiff’s attorney skirts ever so close to sanctions. He helps out, answers questions for his client, and clariies endlessly. No sanction, however.
"If an attorney concludes that a deposition "is being conducted in…
The facts of thiscase are sad. DR. GARY SAFIER, Plaintiff v. WALDER, SONDAK & BROGAN, P.C.,
JUSTIN WALDER, ESQ. and JOHN BROGAN, ESQ., and AMBROSIO, KYREAKAKIS & DI LORENZO,
Doctor knowingly prescribes narcotics to a wealthy addict for years, and nets a hue of money for doing so. Another doctor turns him in, and he…
Quinn Emanuel reports this case: In a federal legal malpractice and section 1983 case, plaintiff’s attorney asked deposition questions of defendant which were intended to harass. Defendant’s attorney told his client not to answer, and ran afoul of the 7th circuit. They said he should have walked out and moved for a protective order.
"During…
We have often thought that plaintiff”s litigation is a high level gamble. Meeting the client, evaluating the case, gathering the materials, bringing the action and engaging the opposition are the similar to sitting down at a poker table.
Here is a case to the nth power. Casino patron walks in, slips on a nasty…
Big players in smaller markets can be a target, or on the other hand may be arrogant and settle cases rather than try them, simply because of the inventory of new cases coming in. Whether this was the case with Justine Thompson is unknown.
What is known is that she had a case, settled the…
Calendar dismissals are a vivid demonstration of how a case goew wrong. There are pre-note and post-note of issue instances. Here is a well written article which discusses pre-note dismissals by William Greenberg
"Now two recent cases from the Appellate Division, Second Department may have lent some clarity. These cases – Travis v. Cuff, 28…
This blog blurb by Ken Shigley discusses the three-way conflict between defendant, its attorney and the carrier, in the context of choices and legal malpractice.
"Where the insurance company has refused to take advantage of opportunities to settle a claim within policy limits, the plaintiff wins a judgment for some multiple of the policy limits…
