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.
"Suit blames Brasota ,Florida lawyer "Legal malpractice" alleged, but lawyer in question says he did nothing wrong and can prove it.
The first lawyer on the scene at Brasota Mortgage overlooked conflicts of interest and his own lack of expertise so he could turn the tangled Bradenton company into a cash cow, Brasota’s court-appointed trustee…
Anthony Lin of the NYLJ writes:
"The former partners of defunct New York law firm Hall Dickler are facing a legal malpractice suit for failing to advise a company to file for bankruptcy earlier than it did.
The creditors’ committee of VWE Group, a Yonkers-based distributor of corporate greeting cards and human resources forms that…
MP3, which is a service allowing one to download music from one’s own CDs, is in hot water and litigation over its service. Now, this story tells us that they have sued their attorneys for not explaining "fair use" to them.
Here is an interesting story. Plaintiff successfully sues her attorney for $6.4 million. Now she sues his father for fraud. The Story:
"CLEVELAND
Coffee firm owner sues
A year ago, Angela Caruso of Brecksville won a $6.4 million legal malpractice verdict against her former lawyer, David Leneghan, in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Now she’s…
Sometimes its a lowly plaintiff, sometimes a big corporation and on ocassion, a city. Here is a completely mixed up report of a city suing its attorneys in legal malpractice. Its in Coatsville.
"Council member Kurt Schenk and president Patsy Ray lashed out at media coverage of Coatesville at Monday night’s meeting.
"In other council…
Malpractice is a professional’s failure to use minimally adequate levels of care, skill or diligence in the performance of the professional’s duties, causing harm to another. In New York, attorney malpractice is defined as a "deviation from good and accepted legal practice, where the client has been proximately damaged by that deviation, but for which,…
Here is a case from Kings which illustrates difficulties in proving that the first attorney was terminated for cause. Often the client is so fixated on getting the case to the new attorney, that promises are made, and proper evidence is not prepared.
Vallejo v. Builders for the Family Youth, 5538/00
Decided: January 2…
Sexter & Warmflash was fired by its client, who then sent it an angry letter. That letter brought a defamation case. It survived summary judgment, but the Appellate Division today reversed and dismissed. Reason? As Anthony Lin of the NYLJ reports, it was qualified privilege.
"A Manhattan appellate court has thrown out a law firm’s…
Here is an interesting, and well written case from the Supreme Court of West Virginia.
"SAMANTHA SELLS v. ARNOLD RAY THOMAS, ET AL., No. 32969 (Per Curiam)(November 9, 2006). Plaintiff Samantha Sells appealed an order of the Circuit Court of Mercer County granting summary judgment in favor of defendant Kenneth Chittum, Esq., on plaintiff’s legal…
A short blurb from a Kentucky legal blog. A Kentucky Supreme Court case held that whether a decision by an attorney was a strategic choice is made by the court, and whether it was a reasonable strategic choice is made by the juyy.
"Attorney errors: Equitania Insurance Co. v. Slone & Garrett determined that…
