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.
As one commentator said, its odd that the attorney-client privilege is broken only when the attorney is sued for Legal malpracitce. However, it is less than clear how the ‘at use” principal plays into legal malpractice litigation.
Here is a case where the defendant attorney wants information from the successor or suing attorney which will…
For a short article on this class action case see: http://www.law.com/jsp/pc/buslaw.jsp
Legal Malpractice representation often requires examination of the retainer agreement. Here is an interesting case on the issue.
“A provision of a retainer agreement requiring a client to pay her lawyer’s costs in the event of a successful fee collection action has been voided by a Manhattan appellate court as against public policy.
Patricia Dow…
NJ.Com reports the following case: Liberty Surplus Insurance Co., Inc. v. Nowell Amoroso, P.A.
“In 1993, owners of the nightclub Scandals claimed it had failed because of harassment by East Orange police. The law firm Nowell Amoroso won a $400,000 verdict on behalf of the nightclub but it was thrown out on appeal because…
Mark Twain coined the phrase, and it remains true today. “An attorney who represents himself…” Anthony Lin in the New York Law Journal tell us:
“A Manhattan Housing Court judge has sanctioned a well-known real estate lawyer who withheld maintenance on his own Park Avenue co-op for lying “repeatedly and without shame” in a 2005…
Here is a legal malpractice case which ends in an award to the client, as well as a disciplinary finding against the attorney.
“Nearly six months after he drafted a client’s divorce agreement in 2001, attorney Bruce Beck knew he had made a mistake in its wording. He first realized the problem after a hearing…
We reported on this case earlier. Now this case, which accuses a judge of legal malpractice prior to the bench, has settled. It seems that there are big numbers involved, but nothing published. Details.
It’s not exactly Legal Malpractice, but this Tax Shelter case against law giant Sidley Austin has been revived after new evidence surfaced in a federal criminal proffer. Here are the details in Williams v. Sidley Austin Details
Insider legal representation, unauthorized practice, general counsel suing outside attorneys. You’ll find all of this and more in this particular NJ case. Here, GC was not admitted to practice, company says he cost them $ 700,000, now he wants to 3d party other attorneys. Details.
Legal Malpractice insurance coverage is generally a “claims made” type. Here is a typical case, now in the NJ Supreme Court. The issue is whether a claim, within the policy period, is covered. Ins. Co. says no, the events took place prior to policy period. Attorney says yes, claim came during policy, and I had…
