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, there would have been a different, better or more positive outcome.”
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Andrew Lavoott Bluestone
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.
Legal Malpractice [??] upon Legal Malpractice
There is no end of irony in thi line of work. Here is a legal malpractice defense and counterclaim which was essentially precluded when defendant counter-claimant was precluded from offering expert testimony. Why? Defendant missed several discovery deadlines in naming and offering the report of the expert. Here is the decision from NJ.…
Real Life, Real Time Legal Malpractice
Here is a defense attorney’s tale of plaintiff attorney’s legal malpractice, written in real time about a real case. Have the corporate clients moved on to a legal malpractice attorney? Time will tell. The story.
A Juror’s Rant, er…Opinion
Here is a juror’s blog on his three day attorney fee-legal malpractice case. Litigants take note. He did not like the case. Full rant.
It’s Not Legal Malpractice, But…
Here is the story of a really ugly attorney-attorney conflict, which teaches the lesson that attorneys can be really vicious. Recently graduated associate leaves a small plaintiff’s PI firm, and takes a fes small cases with her. Result? Employer attorney sends what in my opinion is a totally nasty letter to the clients, carefully couching…
Firms win Appellate Dismissal in Legal Malpractice
Anthony Lin of the New York Law Journal tells us that Kirby, Mcinerney & Squire and Bernstein,Litowitz, Berger & Grossman have won dismissal of a class-action legal malpractice case against them, after the 2d Circuit determined that they acted reasonably by not suing Arthur Anderson. A decision will be published next week.
Class Action Legal Malpractice in Dallas
Dallas based Strasburger & Price is defendant in a class action law suit. Here is the info from Law.Com. “Dallas-based Strasburger & Price is embroiled in a class action suit in which the firm and one of its partners are accused of helping clients defraud hundreds of investors through what the plaintiffs allege was an…
Race Cars, NASCAR and Legal Malpractice
Conflict of interest between a race car enthusiast, a NASCAR event, and the legal field, has led to a legal malpractice case, and an enviromental pollution case. “Since 2004, the city has settled with many businesses, including the Lodi News-Sentinel. Other parties are in negotiations, and water rates have been raised to pay for the…
Criminal Law Legal Malpractice may Cause Death
You may not be able to sue for this type of malpracice, but it is awful. Here are some examples of criminal law legal malpractice. As they all took place in murder cases, people might wrongly die for the mistakes. Details.
Legal Malpractice Monies Sought from Mental Hygiene Attorney
We reported this several weeks ago. Client is told that defendant attorney is suspended and penniless, and settles case for $ 2000. Then she find out he is the highest paid mental hygiene attorney in West Virginia. Now she and another are trying to get the case re-opened and claim some of those earnings. Details…