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.
Here is a Resources for attorneys Blog entry on Metadata. Need to know about it? They say that not knowing leads to malpractice:
"In today’s computer dependant world, the zealous advocate must be able to navigate his way through every conceivable form of discovery in order to effectively represent his or her client. Failure to…
Hinshaw reports: "Missouri Appellate Court Holds Third Party Payment of Lawyer’s Fees Alone Does Not Give Rise to Attorney-Client Relationship "
"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…
This is a further report on a case we discussed this summer:
"$10,800,000 VERDICT AND RECOVERY – PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE – LEGAL MALPRACTICE – BREACH OF DUTY OF LOYALTY OWED BY LAW FIRM TO CLIENTS PARTICIPATING IN NEGOTIATION OF SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT – DEFENDANT ALLEGEDLY CEASED REPRESENTING PLAINTIFFS IN CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS RESULTING IN BREAKDOWN OF MULTI-MILLION…
Try to make sense of this case. It involves legal malpractice and the representations of Chinese hair importers. See below for a discussion of the "discovery statute of limitations" which is very, very rarely invoked successfully.
"On January 9, 2006, pro se plaintiff, Chuanyu Xie ("Xie" or "Plaintiff"), filed a legal malpractice complaint against his…
Defendant attorneys working for a bankrupt insurer are still responsible for EBT transcript bill. Here is a blurb from NYLJ subscription article:
"CLAIMANT REPORTING company sued in this small claims action against defendant law firm alleging defendants failed to pay for reporting services at a deposition. Defendants argued they were appearing on behalf of an…
Here is a short review of an attorney fee dispute which involves Surrogate’s Court, Federal District Court and a claim of unethical contingent fees.
"Simmons, Jannace & Stagg held sway over federal court recently when it decided that any attorneys’ fees disputes that involve the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund should be litigated in the…
Cassandra Crotty, a legal malpractice blogger reports this case from Illinois:
"Yesterday’s Chicago Daily Law Bulletin reported on an Illinois Appellate Court decision this week that found a fee-splitting agreement between two law firms involving a federal conspiracy lawsuit did not apply to a related legal malpractice case handled by only one of the firms.
This is a law.com subscription site, but the jist is:
"Texas’ 1st Court of Appeals has breathed new life into a quarter-century old legal battle that began when one Houston lawyer agreed to represent a woman seeking to collect on loans she made to another Houston lawyer. Although Carol Whitsett died in 2002, her $6.5…
Here is the St. Mary’s link for the legal malpractice symposium in San Antonio Friday – February 23, 2007.
Here is a fuller story on the legal malpractice bridge.
Toronto-based law firm Gowling Lafleur Henderson is being sued by Ambassador Bridge owner and trucking mogul Manuel "Matty" Moroun in U.S. District Court.
According to the Detroit News, bridge execs say the Canadian law firm has jeopardized the Ambassador Bridge’s plan to build a second…
