Everyone thinks about legal malpractice. It is the metafor for a mistake of the most fundimental sort during a cognative process. Whew! What it really means is that people think of legal malpractice as a wrong turn in the very center of helping another person. Here a nurse consultant believes that in the future they
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.
Shocking Coudert Brothers Bankruptcy over Legal Malpractice Awards
We find this report shocking. Coudert Brothers files bankruptcy over a $2.5 million legal malpractice verdict. Questions: No Insurance? No income? What could have happened to this ancient firm?
“Defunct firm Coudert Brothers is nearing its official end after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court late…
NY Court of Appeals to hear Dismissed Davis Polk Legal Malpractice Case
The NYLJ today reports that the New York Court of Appeals will hear a case of legal malpractice dismissed by Justice York and unanimously affirmed by the Appellate Division. This is most unusual!
“The Court of Appeals yesterday agreed to review a case where a legal malpractice claim against Davis Polk & Wardwell was thrown…
Rate your Lawyer’s Legal Malpractice?
New sites allowing consumers to rate doctors, lawyers and others are popping up. Here is a short blurb from the International Herald Journal on the phenominon. “The phenomenon began with Web sites like RateMyProfessors.com, which lets American college students evaluate faculty by posting anonymous comments that are often entertaining and sometimes scathing.
Now, in hopes…
Legal Malpractice Nightmare
This nightmare ranks with being naked in school, losing your homework, etc. Here the lawyer was late in filing with the US Supreme Court. How much worse can it get? “Every lawyer’s nightmare — inadvertently missing a court filing deadline — has come true for Roy Englert Jr. Adding to the pain is that the…
Real Estate Legal Malpractice Case Continues
A case before Justice Cahn in Supreme Court, New York County, reported today in the NYLJ continues after an unsuccessful summary judgment decision. “DEFENDANT LAW firm moved for summary judgment on plaintiff’s claim, including legal malpractice, arguing it neither knew of nor represented the parties in the transaction involving Voluto and plaintiff’s independent actions constituted…
Mold Claim was Stale before case started, no Legal Malpractice Liability
Here is a short reprint of a California case where the case was too old before the attorneys even saw it for the first time. “The plaintiff in a toxic mold lawsuit had no viable malpractice claim against her lawyers over their settlement of her case, since her cause of action was time-barred before she…
Department of Justice, the FBI and Legal Malpractice
Lok Lau, who was formerly an undercover FBI agent, was fired. He appears to have been swept up in other criminal proceedings, and hired defendant attorney to sue for employment discrimination. He lost and now sues. “A former FBI special agent who was fired by the bureau after spending years undercover in the late 1980s…
Unopposed for Judgeship, he faces Legal Malpractice Action
In Choctaw County, Alabama, this attorney is running, unopposed, for a judgeship. Nevertheless, he now is on trial for legal malpractice. Details. “Democratic nominee and apparent circuit judge-elect Stuart C. DuBose will be in court in Mobile County Oct. 2, facing charges of legal malpractice and other improprieties regarding the estate of a deceased Washington…
Telling a War Story? Beware! Legal Malpractice may Follow
Attorneys tell “war stories” at CLE sessions, at association parties, and many other places. Here is a war story that led to defamation and legal malpractice litigation in Mass. Details.
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