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.
Bernstein v. State of New York, 06 Civ. 5681
Decided: February 6, 2007
"Disciplinary proceedings were instituted against Bernstein by the Grievance Committee for the Second and Eleventh Judicial Districts. The petition contained three charges of professional misconduct, including a charge that Bernstein "converted clients [sic] funds that were entrusted to him as a fiduciary…
He tried in Supreme Court, at the Appellate Division level and now in Federal Court. Attorney is sanctioned losing at all levels.
"Plaintiff is suing the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Second Judicial Department ("Appellate Division"); Appellate Division justices Gail Prudenti, David Ritter, Frank Santucci, and Robert Schmidt, in their individual capacities; and, finally…
Here is a story about a Physician with 110 medical malpractice cases pending against him. He just lost his third legal malpractice case against his attorneys
"The U.S. District Court in Charleston dismissed two lawsuits on Tuesday that Dr. John A. King, whose name is now Christopher Wallace Martin, filed against lawyers who represented him.
Here is a decision from Civil Court which is a textbook on how to get a trial de novo after an attorney fee arbitration.
Pruzan v. Levine, 114263/06
Decided: February 6, 2007
Judge Richard Velasquez
KINGS COUNTY
Civil Court
Petitioner: Pro se
Respondent: Pro se
Judge Velasquez
BACKGROUND
Respondent, Laurence A. Levine, moves this Court…
Anthony Lin of the NYLJ writes:
"A Manhattan judge has denied a lawyer’s request for additional fees from a $3.75 million medical malpractice settlement, ruling instead that the lawyer had already taken more than he was entitled to.
Norman L. Cousins represented Kevin Veneski in a 1997 suit against Queens-Long Island Medical Group over Mr.
Rattet lawfirm asks court to seal a pleading about it in a bankruptcy case. It fails.
"The fact that a complaint contains potentially untrue material that could defame a party is not enough to warrant sealing the document, a federal judge has ruled."
Addressing that standard for sealing "scandalous and defamatory" material under 11 U.S.C.
Hinshaw reports this Missouri case:
"The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District held that no attorney-client relationship was created simply by the fact the client’s stepfather paid the lawyer’s fees for a criminal defense and therefore affirmed dismissal of the legal malpractice action filed pro se by the stepfather."
" Mr. Fox asserted that…
Here is a well written and interesting case from the Court of Appeals of indiana called Queery & Harrow Ltd v. TIC which discusses whether an excess insurer may sue its defense attorney after a settlement which required payment by the excess insurer. The case covers a wide range of decisions in the area, both from…
Here is a case in which a $ 2 Million dollar medical malpractice verdict is reversed, partially dismissed and sent back for a new trial based upon late CPLR 3101 notice. Practitioners should beware of this particular problem. Notice must be sent within a reasonable time after retention.
"The judgment in favor of the plaintiff…
Now a judge, then an associate. A twisted asbestos litigation story from Texas. "Associate "Deliberately Lied" to Clients, Jury Finds, Awards $129,000 in Damages "
"In a surprising verdict, a jury in a Dallas federal court found that a former associate with Baron & Budd "deliberately lied" to three clients, awarding them $129,000 in damages…
