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.
A big change in the False imprisonment law, coupled with an analysis of 42 USC 1983 changes comes from the "lawyer Dude’s" blog.
"This is a hopefully going to be a short post. Last week (in fact the day after the court heard argument in Rita/Claiborne) it announced its decision in Wallace v. Kato. The…
Astrada v. Archer, 34401/05
Decided: February 14, 2007
Justice Arthur M. Schack
KINGS COUNTY
Supreme Court
"The instant action resulted from a real estate contract that never closed. I granted summary judgment to plaintiff and made the following order on December 21, 2006, in relevant part:
that within 10 days after notice of entry of…
Anthony Lin of the New York Law Journal writes:
"Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner’s representation of the estate of a wealthy Mexican politician has landed the law firm in a controversy worthy of a steamy telenovela.
For over a decade, Robert J. Reger, a partner in the New York office of San Francisco-based Thelen…
Here is a medical malpractice statute of limitations continuous representation case which has implications for a legal malpractice case, too. The rule is similar in both attorney malpractice and medical mal.
"A medical malpractice cause of action accrues on the date of the alleged act, [*2]omission, or failure complained of, and is subject to a…
Plaintiff sues defendant attorney for legal malpractice, constructive fraud and unlawful imprisonment. All fails but constructive fraud for misrepresenting the soft idea of experience in commercial law.
"There were triable issues of fact with respect to the cause of action for constructive fraud. Plaintiff Herbert Nason testified that he retained these attorneys based not only…
Our experience is that an Erbs palsy case is kind of hard to lose. Most are settled, and the few that are not, generally have a good defense. Here is a midwest juror’s take on a lost Erbs palsy case.
"The first notice got lost, so when I got the warning noting my failure to…
Here is a [subscription] case from the NYLJ. Would the attorney, if permitted to act as a private DA be granted the same insulation from legal malpractice as a real DA?
"Matter of Sedore v. Epstein, 2672/06
Decided: January 23, 2007
DUTCHESS COUNTY
Supreme Court
James W. Hill, Sr. Asst. Public Defendant
Dutchess County Public…
In NJ, as in NY, a criminal defendant may not sue his attorney for legal malpractice absent a showing of "innocence", which in NY generally means a vacatur of the conviction or some post-conviction reversal. Here is another NJ failure.
"Having fully considered these arguments, we affirm the Law Division’s order granting defendants summary judgment…
This NC case illustrates the problems with determining when a statute of limitations starts to run. Is it on the date of bad advice, the date of the settlement, the date of the release, or later? The North Carolina Appellate Blog writes:
"COA: Despite Signed Certified Mail Return Receipt, Service Validity Issues
In In the…
We are scratching our head over this case. A 10-2 verdict? Double Dipping? Defendants who drop out of the story?
"In Baker Botts, et al. v. Kenneth F. Cailloux, as Next Friend of Kathleen C. Cailloux, the 4th Court of Appeals in San Antonio reversed a 2005 trial court judgment ordering Baker Botts and Wells…
