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.
May you sue the opponent’s attorney? A quick look at the principal of privity says: "No." Here is a rare circumstance when you may sue the opponent’s attorney. This particular husband failed; the opening remains, however.
Mars v Grant
2007 NY Slip Op 00576
Decided on January 30, 2007
Appellate Division, First Department
"Plaintiff, who…
Today’s Law Journal Court Notes has a first. e-mails of adjournment by stipulation are premitted in the Motion Support Part. Either a stipulation or an affirmation reciting that oral consent to a stipulation was obtained can be sent by e-mail [and attachment] to NYMOTCAL@courts.state.ny.us by 5:00 pm the night before. See the court note for…
Purchase Partners II LLC v. Westreich, 604219/2004
Decided: January 23, 2007
Justice Bernard J. Fried
Here is a case from the NYLJ which denied disqualification:
Third-party defendant Adam Hochfelder moves for an order: (1) quashing a subpoena, pursuant to CPLR 2304 and 3103[1]; and (2) disqualifying the law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel…
Blogs, Web sites, lawyer communications – all are under regulation and potential greater regulation by NYS. Here is an article about the rules and a case attacking them.
"A high-volume, heavy-advertising personal injury law firm and a Washington, D.C., advocacy group are apparently the first to challenge the new attorney advertising restrictions that took effect…
From the blog Judicial Reports, which makes for very amusing reading. It reports all appellate reversals of New York cases. Here is one in legal malpractice:
"LEGAL MALPRACTICE: Justice Yvonne Lewis granted summary judgment for Ella Jampolskaya in a legal malpractice suit against Victor Gomelsky and his solo law practice firm. The Appellate Division found…
It’s rather shocking to read a legal malpractice action which arises after the U.S. Navy bombs a U.S. citizen, and at work, no less. In any event, this legal malpractice case comes about after the U.S. Navy bombed plaintiff, in error!
"Where (1) an employee of the plaintiff company was injured when a U.S. Navy…
Here is a newspaper article about a case we reported about a week ago. The story is of a rape victim who lost several rounds of litigation until last week.
Five years and six days ago, a mild-mannered widow with medical problems was raped in a storage unit at Casa Escondida, an Escondido apartment complex…
Law Com reports on this attorney in Connecticut: "A veteran New Haven, Conn., lawyer has been suspended from the practice of law for six months for his role in a real estate transaction that may be a blatant case of mortgage fraud. In his special defense against interim suspension, Olmer noted that, in his 53…
The Madison-St. Claire Record prints more aritlcles about law and legal malpractice than almost any publication, including Law.Com Here is an article about the inner workings of the Class Action litigation world.
"When the Lakin Law Firm filed its newest class action complaint in Madison County Circuit Court Jan. 22, long time co-counsel Paul Weiss…
e-Discovery. Its all over the news, and if you look at any glossy legal magazine, it’s in all the ads. Does one use a professional e-Discovery company to mine opponent’s computers? Will the big firms form in-house e-Discovery units? What document retention policy to use? Here is an article about the legal malpractice aspect of…
