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 the legal malpractice case from the biggest verdicts in Kansas of last year.
"•$3 million in a breach of fiduciary duty and legal malpractice claim against Sanford Krigel and Krigel & Krigel.
The plaintiff alleged she hired the defendants after she decided to give up her baby for adoption. The defendants also represented…
Here is a decision from Justice Diamond in New York County, dismissing a legal malpractice case on collateral estoppel. Tydings v, Greenfield, Stein & Senior LLP. The case is reported in today’s NYLJ [subscription].
"It is ordered that: This is a legal malpractice action. Plaintiff Frieda Tydings is a former trustee of an irrevocable inter…
"One of three lawyers accused of plundering Kentucky’s $200 million fen-phen settlement said he and his colleagues "tore up or burned" notes showing how much they paid themselves and their clients.
Depositions obtained by The Courier-Journal include Lexington attorney Melbourne Mills Jr.’s description of a meeting that he said he and lawyers William Gallion and…
Here is a sad case from New Jersey. Attorney Luhn is found to be a compusive gambler, an embezzeler, a bankrupt and, still, the legal malpractice plaintiff had to go through a full trial and appeal to get his monies back.
"Based upon his findings, Judge Gilroy concluded that Luhn breached a professional duty of…
Chron Com reports: "Houston-based law firm Andrews Kurth has agreed to pay Enron’s bankruptcy estate $18.5 million to settle potential malpractice claims stemming from legal advice on various transactions.
Enron’s estate never actually sued Andrews Kurth for allegedly signing off on dubious deals, and the law firm denies any wrongdoing in its work for the…
"The former Citigroup broker for convicted WorldCom chief executive Bernard J. Ebbers is suing Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, claiming the law firm was conflicted when it advised Citigroup on the broker’s severance package.
David H. Trautenberg, the former co-head of the bank’s private wealth management group, was a significant figure in litigation arising…
Blind lawyer needs an office manager. State agency which helps the blind sends him an office manager. Problem? The manager already had theft history and then steals blind lawyer’s money. Is the agency possibly liable? More detalis to come. The story.
CPLR 205a is a not well known, but very important statute which allows a plaintiff to re-file a complaint which is dismissed, if it was timely when filed, where jurisdiction was obtained over the defendants, and it was not dismissed on the merits or for failure to prosecute. It may come into play when cases…
Here is a write-in-your-complaint web site. It’s one variety of calls a legal malpractice attorney gets. What would be your advice? The client’s potential complaint:
"I consulted a lawyer in 1998 about defective product that was installed in my home. The charge was $3000 and I wanted it fixed. The lawyer said I could fight…
"William F.McMurry, a trial specialist in medical and legal malpractice says, "The
primary purpose of the suit is to hold the Vatican accountable and this
ruling gives us the opportunity to get a hold of church documents and take
depositions of church officials."
William F. McMurry is the only Kentucky lawyer certified as a medical…
