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.
The Jockey’s Guild has brought a legal malpractice case against its attorney. They cite a default judgment and other losing tactics.
"The Jockey’s Guild has filed a lawsuit against the organization’s former legal counsel claiming he and others were negligent in their responsibilities to protect the financial interests of the Guild and its 1,300 member-jockeys…
Accountant malpractice is very similar to legal malpractice. Continuous representation is one aspect. Here is an Appellate reversal of a New York County Supreme Court case where Justice Kornreich found continuous representation, but the AD reversed in Booth v. Kriegel.
"Accountant I. Stanley Kriegel admits that for 17 straight years he failed to advise his…
Here is a facinating blog: Judicial Reports: The Reversal Report. It lists all appellate reversals of NYC judges, by judge name and county. Great reading. the blog.
Here is a problem that shows up with frequency: Is it legal malpracitce not to "freeze" or insulate the retirement account in a matrimonial action after agreement/verdict and before actual transfer.
Often, there is a long delay between agreement and transfer of the IRA or Pension accounts between H & W. Market changes make this…
Prof. Michael Ambrosino of Seton Hall School of Law argues that there is too much attorney-client confidentiality. He compares New Jersey to the rest of the nation and finds the other states wanting. His take?
"One can only speculate the extent to which bad legal advice or the ethical lapses of lawyers have contributed to…
Dorsey & Whtney is reported to be facing further woes from its Casino legal representation. Law.Com writes:
"A legal battle over a bungled finance deal for an Indian casino in upstate New York has Dorsey & Whitney scrambling to deflect a multimillion-dollar hit for legal malpractice.
Dorsey & Whitney already has filed an appeal to…
Plaintiff was the finacee of a World Trade Center victim and hired defendant attorney to pursue the WTC 9/11 Fund. She was shut out on all counts. As a fiancee she was not premitted recovery under any NJ statute, and the 9/11 Fund followed state law.
After being shut out across the board, she sued…
All right, this is admittedly a very dry subject. However, this legal malpractice case arose after a federal class action securities case, and involves $ big money. Here is the 2d Circuit Court’s decision, as reported in the Federal Civil Practice Bulletin.
Here is an article from Law.Com which tells the story of resignor Jay I. Gordon. He resigned from the bar last month after admitting $2 million in kickbacks from tax shelters to whom he referred and sent clients. The story. GT is also defendant in at least one legal malpractice case mentioned in the article.
Here is a sad report from Las Vegas. Attorney Lawrence Davidson is a missing defendant in a Federal indictment which was to be tried starting October 30. Defendant is charged with stealing $936,300 in settlement proceeds and taking off. Apparently not everone stays in Las Vegas.
