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.
The City of New York, the Health & Hosptials Corporation, individual hospitals. The ownership and place of service of a summons and complaint, as well as a notice of medical malpractice have long been a trap for the unwary.
NOTE: The New York Law Journal reports that "starting April 30, 2007 service of process and…
Here is a Florida case whcih discusses the obligation between attorneys on a fee split, and the difference between an attorney split and a fee owed by the client. Here, attorney 1 referred the case to attorney 2, and was then terminated. Result? Attorney 2 owes a specific percentage to Attorney 1.
"An appellate court…
"After a Preston Hollow, Texas, neighbor complained that his son’s pet donkey was a loud nuisance, Dallas lawyer C. Gregory Shamoun brought the donkey, known as Buddy, into a courtroom on Wednesday to attempt to prove to a jury that the burro’s not. When the suit went to trial on Wednesday, Buddy…
Here is a legal malpractice case in which it is alleged that defendant attorney spoke with the upcoming judge at at coctail party, and was told that the judge would let plaintiff have only 5 days of trial. As a result, it is alleged that plaintiff settled the case rather than try it in so…
This case falls in the "just can”t explain it" category.
Attorney represents plaintiff and obviously had problems. Client sues attorney in legal malpractice, and attorney defaults on trial. He then defaults on inquest of which he had notice. He then fails to do anything about a settled judgment.
Only after entry of judgment does he…
Here is a reported case in which the case against defendant was dismissed after openings. This occurrence is rare, rare, rare. Worse yet, plaintiff suffered complete dismissal at the end of plaintiff’s case. What was counsel doing and thinking??
"Plaintiff’s opening statement failed to make out a prima facie case of negligence against the driver…
Plaintiff in this personal injury action litigated it correctly right up to trial. However, it then fell completely apart. Trial attorney hired about a week prior to trial, and was not exactly ready. Request for an adjournment denied, case dismissed. The decision places the fault squarely with plaintiff’s attorney. Is this Legal Malpractice?
"Whether to…
This case illustrates two things: real estate leases in commercial transactions can have great consequences, and, a contract cause of action for legal malpractice can succeed hugely.
"A lawyer who is now with Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads was hit with a legal malpractice verdict of more than $6.6 million in a suit brought against…
Our Outside Counsel column in today’s NYLJ is on "The Defense of Collectibility in Legal Malpractice"
Here is a portion. For the entire article, see today’s NYLJ:
The Defense of ‘Collectibility’ in Legal Malpractice
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone
New York Law Journal
April 20, 2007
One of the many wrinkles in legal malpractice…
Hinshaw writes today about a federal worker’s compensation attorney fee issue which applies to all attorney fee disputes: block billing and 1/4 hour minimum billing, both of which led to a reduction by the court:
"Brief Summary
The Ninth Circuit reviewed the guidelines applicable to court-awarded attorney fees in ERISA litigation. Among other things, the…
