We’ve reported on this case in months past. Here is the latest from the NYLJ.“Attorneys in the malpractice lawsuit against Barry C. Scheck and his firm, Cochran, Neufeld & Scheck, have agreed to mediation before Eastern District Magistrate Judge Steven M. Gold. The state Court of Appeals recently ruled that Mr. Long, who was
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.
West Virginia Legal Malpractice Security Suit
“A Kansas-based company is suing Madison law firm Shaffer and Shaffer, claiming the firm is guilty of legal malpractice.
Bennett and Daughter Security Associates filed the lawsuit July 6 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the firm and attorney Susan Cannon-Ryan.” Details.
Sale of Scholl College and Legal Malpractice
Gardner Carton & Douglas and one of its former attorneys “have been sued for legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary responsibility in connection with the 2004 sale of the Scholl College building on the city’s Gold Coast.”
“The North Chicago-based medical school alleges that Mr. Loren conspired with Stuart Levine, who then headed the school’s…
Falling Limb Legal Malpractice and the Lakin Firm
The Lakin firm has received a great deal of publicity in the legal malpractice world. We have several articles over the past year, all of which may be accessed by suing the “search” box. Here a young woman, injured by a falling limb, was told that she could receive “millions” only to be dropped. She…
Collateral Estoppel Trap in Legal Malpractice
We’re featured today in the New York Law Journal writing about the Collateral Estoppel Trap in Legal Malpractice. Details.
Nat Hentoff’s Suggestions for Bush Malpractice Suit
Nat Hentoff suggests a list of chracters for President Bush to sue in legal malpractice. Here is his political op-ed page.
Attorneys Sanctioned in Dog sees God case
Precursers to legal malpractice may often be found in the underlying case which has had sanctions granted. Here is one potential example of the act-sanctions-legal malpractice script. Here, the attorneys are sanctioned, based upon what another litigant calls a most extreme malice. When this is the story, client often turns on attorney. Details.…
Lawyer Notification Rule Recinded
Office of Court Administration recently instituted a rule requiring attorneys to notify judges when 60 days had passed without a decision on motions. We bloged about this on the day of institution. Now OCA has recinded the rule. Why? It seems too many litigants were using the letter as a way of re-making their arguments.…
Frivolous Appeal, $70,000 in Sanctions and Fees
Plaintiff brought the action for specific performance in a doomed commercial real estate deal. Plaintiff argued oral contract to sell real estate. Not a strong position? So weak, in this case, that the Appellate Division has awarded huge sanctions and legal fee awards against the plaintiff and its attorney. Will legal malpractice follow? Goldberg Weprin…
Legal Malpractice for Creative Augmentation
Plaintiff was represented in this whistleblower suit to great success. All was well until the attorney awarded himself both the statutory fee of $232,718, and then a contingent portion of the total award, leaving itself with about .70 of the whole award. Details.