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.
We reported on this case a week ago, but here is another take on the issue of PA Appeals and vagueness:
"A Pennsylvania Superior Court panel has affirmed the dismissal of a legal malpractice action brought against Fox Rothschild by two brothers who claimed the firm’s handling of a family will left their inheritance lighter…
Here is a NJ case on legal malpractice insurance coverage for retired partners who continue handling certain matters.
"Thanks to ambiguous and vague policy language, a professional liability carrier will have to cover a law firm partner for malpractice allegedly committed after he left an insured firm, a New Jersey appeals court says.
The judges…
Attorney is hired to fix IRS problems. Tells Client to give he a check, and he will pay the IRS. Check cashed, IRS not paid, Attorney arrested, and now a legal malpractice case. Here is the story.
"BENTONVILLE — A Bentonville attorney arrested on fraud and theft charges has been sued by the mother and…
This story from law.com:
"A rare U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision that declared a patent unenforceable because of the patent attorney’s inequitable conduct during the patent application process is likely to increase lawyers’ disclosures to the patent office.
On May 18, the court upheld a California federal court decision that declared…
The details are a little sparse in this story but after losing a $ 6.5 milliion medical malpractice case, the hospital and its attorney are now on the hook for a $ 1.3 million sanction too.
"A Parkersburg-area hospital has been ordered to pay a $1.3 million sanction in a medical malpractice lawsuit. This after…
We really can’t explain it. Here is the story. Was it the unhealthy aspect of french fries ? Was it residual anti-French feelings from the Iraq war? Would "freedom fries" have been OK?
"Saying a bankruptcy judge was "a few french fries short of a Happy Meal" may cost an out-of-state lawyer the ability…
Plaintiff is injured in a train accident, and wins $3 million. Law firm and a money manager both get into trouble. The Story:
Attorney "Lakin was indicted April 23 on charges of cocaine use and distribution as well as transporting a minor male to Malibu, Calif. with the intent to engage in sexual activity. He is…
Lead Plaintiff in a class action is unhappy with settlement amount, and seeks to sue the class action attorney and sues class action attorney in legal malpractice. Holding: plaintiff is collaterally estopped from suing.
Hinshaw reports: "J. Michael Koehler v. Jules Brody, et al., ___F.3d___, 2007 WL 895864 (8th Cir. 2007)
Brief Summary
Two…
Here is a NJ case about legal malpractice insurance coverage for successor attorneys.
"In this appeal, we decide whether a policy of insurance providing coverage for legal malpractice requires the insurer to provide indemnification to a former partner of a law firm for acts of malpractice allegedly committed subsequent to the dissolution of that firm.
Here in the SCOKY Blog we have a list of upcoming KY Supreme Court arguments, complete with briefs and records. The case of Kaplan v. Puckett appears to be a successful prisoner v. attorney legal malpractice case.
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