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.

Reporting again from the Madison County Record, here is an automobile legal malpractice case. “Two people involved in an auto accident in 2002 claim legal malpractice in a lawsuit filed against their former attorney and law firm.

According to the complaint filed Aug. 17 in St. Clair County Circuit Court, Sidney and LaToi Williams sustained

Imputation Doctrine No Longer Shields Negligent Auditors
Shareholders may sue accountants for negligent failure to detect fraud

Stephen V. Falanga
New Jersey Law Journal
August 30, 2006

“The New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision in NCP Litigation Trust v. KPMG, LLP, may dramatically affect the relationship between corporations and their outside auditors. The case, decided June

Could be the largest group of plaintiffs in a legal malpractice case. Defendant law firm represented health insurer. “The jury found Fillenwarth Dennerline liable for failing to notify the health plan’s trustees of its growing financial losses. The now-defunct plan, the Indiana Construction Industry Trust, was set up by about a dozen construction-related companies to

As a reminder of the many and varied paths of law and law practice, here is a quote from today’s NYLJ Outside Counsel Column, written by T. James Bryan, of Herrick Feinstein. He discusses an arcane area of tax law coupled with condo sales.

The bottom line? Legal malpractice.

“You are asked to represent a

1. Amcan Holdings, Inc. v. Torys LLP,</em> 8637N, Index 115392/04, 590097/05 , SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT , 2006 NY Slip Op 6308;

This US and Canadian legal malpractice case, reported by us much earlier in its life, has been fought on two fronts, Essex County and New York

OK, for those of you who do not practice any type of trial law, “naked” ususally means “without insurance.” Here is an article which tracks the ups and downs of bankruptcy filings. Mr. Sment opines that many legal malpractice carriers cut coverage in the wake of changes to bankruptcy law last year. “According to Sment,

Client hired attorneys to litigate a big estate matter, and it appears that they did well. They did so well that the court directed the estate to pay a large percentage of their fees, leaving a smaller part for the client to pay. Client did not pay, and was sued for legal fees. Result? Client