Attorneys are afforded a very wide swath of protection when they act as criminal defense attorneys. They cannot be successfully sued for legal malpractice unless the client can show that they are “free of a conviction” or demonstrate “actual innocence” That did not happen in Brooks v Shechtman 2022 NY Slip Op 33155(U) September 19,
Andrew Lavoott Bluestone
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.
Even If A Lie, Not Good Enough for Judiciary Law 487
Relief for violation of Judiciary Law § 487 is not “lightly given.” Facebook, Inc. v. DLA Piper LLP (US) . As an example, in AmTrust N. Am., Inc. v Pavloff 2022 NY Slip Op 02862 [204 AD3d 599] April 28, 2022 the Appellate Division, First Department found, in essence, that a mere lie is not…
Collaterally Estopped From Judiciary Law 487 Claims
Feng Li v Shih 2022 NY Slip Op 04293 [207 AD3d 444] [207 AD3d 444] July 6, 2022 Appellate Division, Second Department is a case so rife with wrongdoing, fee disputes, disbarments and other extreme forms of play that it stands out in a field which is awash with wrongdoing. Here, the Court dismisses all…
A Hodgepodge of Claims, All Dismissed including Judiciary Law 487
Murphy v Kozlowska 2022 NY Slip Op 32947(U) September 2, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 150978/2022 Judge: Lisa S. Headley presents the classic “catch-all” bag of claims against an attorney/lawfirm. It appears that the attorneys were defending Plaintiffs (at least one of whom is an attorney) and Plaintiffs became disenchanted…
Rogue Attorneys Lurking In Law Firms
An attorney can be a free agent, or part of a team. Increasingly, it seems the attorney can be both, at once. Carasco v Schlesinger 2022 NY Slip Op 33021(U) September 8, 2022
Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 156729/2019, Judge: David B. Cohen is an example of an attorney taking a…
A Very Complicated New York Real Estate Fraud Case
Fierro v Yellen 2022 NY Slip Op 32959(U) August 31, 2022 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: Index No. 523796/2021 Judge: Ingrid Joseph is way too complicated a fact pattern to set forth in a paragraph or two. You’ll have to read the multi-page facts in the case itself.
Here is the doctrinal take-away discussion…
Continuous Representation Ended with a Dispute
Menkes v Greenwald 2022 NY Slip Op 32882(U) August 24, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 159685/2021 Judge: David B. Cohen is an illustration of how the continuous representation period can end when one of the legs collapses. Specifically the legs to continuous representation are a continuing relationship of trust and…
Too Late, No Actual Innocence, No Standing and Subsequent Attorney Error Doom a Legal Malpractice Case
As if a textbook discussing many of the less obvious hurdles for a legal malpractice claimant, Brooks v Baker & Hostelter, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 32871(U) August 23, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 655754/2021 Judge: Arlene P. Bluth defines and sets forth the law on issues of standing, commencement…
Attorney Fee Claims are Very Common
Anecdotally, we believe that attorney fee claims make up the majority of attorney cases. Legal malpractice takes up a very minor portion of the overall set of cases in which an attorney is a party. Hand Baldachin & Amburgey LLP v John Barrett, Inc. 2022 NY Slip Op 50826(U) Decided on August 26, 2022 Supreme…
A Long Discussion About the Lack of Deceit (II)
Kaufman v Boies Schiller Flexner LLP2022 NY Slip Op 32743(U) August 15, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 154149/2018 Judge: James d’Auguste is the very fraught story of a massively fought matrimonial action. It seems that millions were spent on litigation. The martial estate must have been very worthwhile. This…