I did not know Kirsten L. Christophe. She died on 9/11/01 and this site is a tribute. Read it.
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.
A House Demolished, the US Supreme Court and Legal Malpractice
Plaintiff’s parent’s home was wrongly demolished by the city. They later died and the son sued the city, its officials and various attorneys for civil rights and legal malpractice. The case went to the US Supreme Court, and is now back in District Court at the pleading stages. Details.
Legal Malpractice “Too Confusing” for a Jury
We reported this case twice in the past month. Here is a more detailed news article which explains this West Virginia car accident legal malpractice case in detail.
Unsealing of Legal Malpractice Case in Hawaii
15 volumns of material were unsealed in a legal malpractice case in Hawaii. Here are the details of the case.
Deeper and Deeper into Legal Malpractice
Here is a story from Ohio, which is too familiar. Attorney takes case, doesn’t file it, lies to client, tells her there is a $ 30,000 offer for which he’ll take no fee [was he ready to pay the client $30,000?] and then it gets worse. Details.
Another DLA Piper Patent Legal Malpractice Case
Yet another report from the Internet and Class Action Blog on DLA Piper and Legal Malpractice.
“Aidentity Matrix Entertainment filed a lawsuit against DLA Piper alleging that Piper had a duty to docket “all deadlines, domestic and foreign, for its clients’ patent applications.” Indeed, the plaintiff points to Piper’s web site which allegedly states that…
Godwin Gruber, Bankruptcy and Legal Malpractice
“The bankruptcy trustee for former clients of Dallas’ Godwin Gruber has filed a professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duties suit against the firm and two former shareholders, alleging the defendants mishandled a patent infringement case.
The original petition names the firm — now known as Godwin Pappas Langley Ronquillo — and former shareholders Arthur…
DLA Piper and Class Action Legal Malpractice Case
We get this from the Internet and Class Action Blog.
“A $19 million class action lawsuit has been filed against DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary LLP (as successor in interest to Piper Marbury Rudnick & Wolfe, LLP). The lawsuit alleges that the defendant law firm committed professional negligence and legal malpractice in drafting documents relating…
Collectability and Strategy Defenses in Illinois
We credit Illinois Legal Malpractice Blog with this story on an Illinois legal malpractice case which gives the Illinois rule on Collectablibity and Strategy defenses there – both affirmative defenses. The story.
Legal Malpractice and Stealing from the Estate
“A Dunbar woman is accusing Barton Law Office of misappropriating funds from her dead mother’s estate.
Karen Richardson, acting as Executrix of the Estate of Freeda Pringle, says Jeffrey Barton and Barton Law Office stole at least $25,000 from Pringle’s estate and lost her case file in a lawsuit filed July 27 in Kanawha Circuit…