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 a toothsome [sorry] case in which dentists, turned lawyers are now accused of legal malpractice in a dental malpractice case.
Their mistake? Not asserting loss of income in the BP. The result? A pain and suffering verdict of $ 260,000 but nothing for loss of income. From the New York Law Journal:
"A…
Plaintiff in Legal Malpractice Case was a defendant in a personal injury case. He says the case could have been settled for $ 35,000 when the injured party’s attorney made a demand. His attorney, without asking junk yard owner, rejected the demand and went to trial. Result ? Junk yard owner paid more, and now…
It’s not entirely clear how the relationship between Attorney Fishkin and Marlow arose with Attorney Taras but it appears that Taras referred cases to Fishkin, or Fishkin was hired by Taras to work on the cases. many settled, but Fishkin and Marlow were not paid. They sued Taras for legal fees and lost on the basis…
Its a bedrock principal. In order successfully to sue a criminal defense attorney, you must show actual innocence. Sometimes this is possible; think the Innocence Project. Often it is not; think ineffective assistance of counsel. Here is a California play on the issue. The blog.
Its a huge legal malpractice case, and we reported it over the summer. Now WG moves for summary judgment against the National Benevolent Association of the Christian Church, which claims malpractice in their Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing. We’ll follow for the decision. In the meantime, Anthony Lin of the NYLJ writes:
"Weil Gotshal Moves to…
Legal malpractice is always a case within a case. This particular report is of a collection matter, followed by a failed legal malpractice matter, followed by a malicious prosecution case. Anthony Lin at the NYLJ reports:
"A New York judge has permitted a lawyer to proceed with a malicious prosecution suit against the mortgage company…
This is not legal malpractice, but I cound not resist. This is a real cat fight between client and attorney. The story.
The Madison Record reports on legal malpractice. It is perhaps the largest contributor to legal malpractice journalism we’ve encountered. Here is an interesting point. Madison County, IL has more class actions than any other single county in the US.
Here is a story about a big class action firm, which is reported not to have…
We reported on his earlier legal malpractice case. Now, it is reported that Michael Jackson has started a malpractice case against his former accountants. The announcement.
This bloger suggests that law schools be ranked according to their alumni legal malpractice cases. Hisblog blurb.
