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.
Law firm’s decision not to sue potential defendant could not be basis for malpractice claim because law firm acted reasonably where liability and damages were uncertain
Hinshaw reports:
Achtman v. Kirby, McInerney & Squire. LLP, ___ F.3d ___, 2006 WL 2720643 (2nd Cir. Sept. 25, 2006)
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second…
A recurring question in legal malpractice is whether the attorney client privilege is waived by bringing the case. While it is almost always waived as to the defendant attorney, for the most part it is not waived for other attorneys. Here is a Florida case on the subject.
"Coates v. Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson PA…
This is not per se legal malpractice, but it is a shocker. In this Ohio Federal decision, the insurance broker is immune from suit for negligent failure to procure or for the procural of wrong insurance.
"In Mafcote v. Genatt Associates, 2007 U.S. Dist. Lexis 10117 (S.D. Ohio Feb. 14, 2007), U.S. District Court…
Doctor is successfully sued in medical malpractice to the tune of $ 116 Million now sues his defense attorneys for not settling in the $ 1,5 million dollar range..
"Doctors who lost a malpractice lawsuit to the tune of $116.7 million are now suing their lawyers, saying the attorneys were negligent.
A Hillsborough County…
This is a blog blurb from the subscription NJLJ site. "A law firm defending itself in a legal malpractice case took an unusual tack: trying to avail itself of the plaintiff’s expert — Fox News commentator and former state judge Andrew Napolitano — while trying to impeach his ethics history."
It looks as if…
Here is a blog blurg from Hinshaw:
"New York Court Holds Lawyers Retained By Insurer to Represent Insured May Have Duty to Put Excess Carrier on Timely Notice of Claim
Shaya B. Pacific, LLC v. Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker, LLP, 827 N.Y.S.2d 231 (N.Y.A.D. 2 Dept. 2006)
After a judgment was returned in…
Bankruptcy court is said to be full of conflicts of interest. Here, there is a possibility that Pilsbury Winthrop will be divested of its lead counsel role and made to give back $4 million in fees.
"An alleged conflict of interest could cost Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman its role in a long-running bankruptcy case —…
Plaintiff in this legal malpractice case was held personally liable for human hair import damages. Turning to his lawyer, he was brushed off a second time. The case is Xie v. Lin
"On January 9, 2006, pro se plaintiff, Chuanyu Xie ("Xie" or "Plaintiff"), filed a legal malpractice complaint against his former lawyer Chris Lin…
A collge student, who has already started a case for sexual harassment, has now widened the net to bring in an athletic director at the school on a theory of legal malpractice. The Story.
"Kelly May, the UL graduate who sued her political science professor for sexual harassment last year, has added David Walker, UL’s…
Know anything about civil forfeiture? Up on the latest quirks? If not, don’t start a case without doing research! This case tells us:
"The plaintiffs alleged in their complaint, inter alia, that the defendant was negligent for failing to become familiar with the forfeiture law and agreeing to the settlement terms without attempting to negotiate…
