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.
"Foley & Lardner Sued Over Missed Biotech Patent Filing
Zusha Elinson
The Recorder
January 17, 2007
Printer-friendly Email this Article Reprints & Permissions
Apparently, there’s no vaccine for legal malpractice suits against IP lawyers.
A fledgling San Diego biotech company is suing Foley & Lardner for allegedly missing the filing date on an international patent…
That title implies the progression of the attorney into debtorhood. However, the story is different here. The case.
Bell v. Hubbert, 05 Civ. 10456
Decided: December 22, 2006
"In or around November 1992, Bell retained the Defendants’ law firm, known as Lester, Hubbert & Gill, P.C. ("LH&G"), to prosecute a cause of action in New…
Easily the winner in the most tangential legal malpracticeblog blurb, here is the story of a hollywood screenwriter, "The Hitcher", and legal malpractice.
"The Weekly’s Paul Cullum described the accident as follows:
According to witness statements, [Red’s] Jeep struck his car a second time, gradually picking up speed, until it jackknifed the Honda…
The end of the relationship can come from any number of reasons, but the end is reached either before or at the end of the underlying litigation.
<strong>Termination by client</strong>
It is the general rule in the United States, and the rule in New York that an attorney’s representation of a client may be terminated…
Some people defend legal malpractice, and some move to a new meta-level. Here is the story of a law firm which apparently failed to advise their client to file a WC claim within a year. When they are sued, do the simply call the carrier and defend? No, They get the legislature to pass a…
Unincorporated LLCs and privity in Legal Malpractice. Its an arcane area of law. Here is an interesting analysis of a new case.
"New York Suit By LLC Minority Members Against Attorneys Representing Majority Members
Under New York law, a plaintiff may not allege attorney malpractice absent a showing of actual or near privity between the…
Here is an interesting series of legal malpractice articles which you might wish to read.
Here is anarticle which discusses a class action against a Florida law firm for overbiling on contingent fees. This is usually a tough thing to do.
"A Tampa law firm that has garnered millions of dollars in neglect and abuse settlements and lawsuits against nursing homes in Florida and around the country is now…
Here is a New York Law Journal article on application of the New Rules on Depositions.
"Most practicing attorneys in New York have experienced obstructive behavior from their adversaries during a deposition. Obstructive behavior can take the form of directing the witness not to answer or of speaking objections, where the attorney infers or influences…
Living in NYC, we forget that in other places, where people live on plots of land, adverse possession is a significant area of litigation. Here is a short blog blurb concerning how to handle an adverse possession situation. This attorney has had 50 cases!
"As a trial lawyer, I’ve probably had 50 adverse possession cases…
