We’ve reported the earlier aspects of this case, but the Legal Malpractice case against Weil Gotshal arising over its Fendi and Prada representation and the conflict of interest when it represented a NJ boutique has started. Anthony Lin in the NYLJ Details.
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.
The Oldest Legal Malpractice Case in NY??
A 19 year old case, brought by a pro-se matrimonial litigant, is still pending against the fifth and last attorney who represented this divorcee.
Now, after 19 years, her motion to amend the pleadings has been denied. The case against Arnold B. Firestone, a matrimonial attorney, continues, albiet in its earlier pleaded form. Details.
Legal Malpractice Cases 4-7-06 to 5-8-06
1.Laduca v. Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, 2005-04771, (Index Nos. 42874/01, 75061/02, 75419/02) , SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, SECOND DEPARTMENT , 2006 NY Slip Op 3545; Restoral to calendar permitted.
2.Rajasethupathy v. Gray, Feldman & Rosenbaum, LLP, 478, CA 05-01781 , SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FOURTH DEPARTMENT , 2006 NY…
“Getting theirs” in Legal Malpractice
Here is a rather sour entry from Forbes. I’ve reprinted a portion of this subscription required article.
Continue Reading “Getting theirs” in Legal Malpractice
Removal of Legal Malpractice Case to Fed Ct
Removal of a case from state court to federal district court requires subject matter jurisdiction in Fed.Ct. That might be diversity jurisdiction, or federal question jurisdiction. Here is a blog article on a 7th Circuit case about removal and federal question. Details.
Transfer of Legal Malpractice Rights
Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP reports this case: Prior Attorney-Client Relationship Does Not Transfer in a Sale of Assets
Greene’s Pressure Treating & Rentals, Inc. v. Fulbright & Jaworski, L.L.P., 178 S.W.3d 40 (Tex. App. 2005)
The Texas Court of Appeals held that a company that had purchased the assets, but not the stock, of a…
Mohegan Sun, Racetracks, and Legal Malpractice
Mohegan Sun is involved in a legal malpractice case arising from a race track transaction. The legal malpractice case involves present judges who as attorneys were involved. Details.
Attorney Fee Litigation and Trial de Novo
Attorney fee litigation and legal malpractice are intertwined. An award of a legal fee implicitly determines that there was no malpractice, and can be used as a res judicata or collateral estoppel issue. Here is a case from the NYLJ on procedual aspects of a trial de novo after an attorney fee arbitration.…
Patent Law, Uncertainty and Legal Malpractice
Patent law is one of the few permitted “specialities”, and well beyond the ken of most practicing attorneys. Here is an interesting article on just how uncertain patent litigation is, and how it is related to legal malpractice.
Anna Nicole Smith and Legal Malpractice
Who would have thought that the US Supreme Court would have come up in a search of former playboy bunnies/topless dancers. Now, legal malpractice too comes up in the search. The Hoops and Other blog makes this argument: but for legal malpractice in bringing an action against Smith in Bankruptcy court, there would have been…