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.
Not for the first time, courts hold that suing an attorney appointed by the court is impermissible. In J.D. v Galchus 2022 NY Slip Op 22139 Decided on March 31, 2022 Supreme Court, Queens County Velasquez, J. held just that.
“This is a legal malpractice action against the defendant, the court appointed attorney for the…
Cutie Pie Baby Inc. v Sasson Law PLLC 2022 NY Slip Op 31450(U) May 2, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 655055/2021 Judge: Margaret Chan is an interesting, and relatively rare application of Grace v. Law, 24 NY3d 203 (2014). In a family setting, two of the family seek to remove…
Roedelbronn v Borstein & Sheinbaum LLC 2022 NY Slip Op 31434(U) May 3, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 158045/2020 Judge: William Perry is a rare divorce legal malpractice case that has actionable facts which give rise to provable damages. (Example: a miscalculation by the Referee of $ 417,000 in plaintiff’s…
The Appellate Division reversed the grant of summary judgment to defendants in Alrose Steinway, LLC v Jaspan Schlesinger, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 03310 Decided on May 19, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department, knocking out each of the underpinnings.
“Plaintiff claims that defendants negligently failed to advise it that an amendment to a commercial lease…
A child dies and a claim of medical malpractice ensues. The parents consent to an autopsy and certain of the child’s organs are not returned. Apparently the medical malpractice claim founders in the absence of examination of the organs, besides which, the parents want to bury them. They sue their personal injury law firm in…
In a very short decision, Supreme Court’s denial of dismissal was affirmed. TF Lending, LLC v Mavrides, Moyal, Packman & Sadkin, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 02946 Decided on May 03, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department stands for the proposition that an attorney working in a firm can be personally liable as well as the…
Genesis REOC Co., LLC v Poppel 2022 NY Slip Op 02947 Decided on May 03, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department is a case in which Plaintiff’s affidavit was prominently relied upon by the Court in determining that there was scheme in place rather than an error of judgment. The affidavit also demonstrated negligent representation.
“Defendants’…
Weis v Rheem, Bell & Freeman, LLP 2022 NY Slip Op 31203(U) April 12, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 160796/2020 Judge: Barbara Jaffe is a example of how courts burrow into the “but for” portion of the legal malpractice claim.
“Plaintiffs allege that in or about April 2015, plaintiff Weis…
Anecdotally, we often receive calls in which the potential client tells us that the target attorneys “forced” them into settling. It seems that the proper question to the potential client is probably whether the “force” was of a “gun to the head” variety, or merely overbearing talk. Bei Yang v Pagan Law Firm, P.C. …
How deceitful must deceit be to qualify for Judiciary Law § 487 application? AmTrust N. Am., Inc. v Pavloff 2022 NY Slip Op 02862 Decided on April 28, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department gives us some idea.
“The amended complaint states a cause of action for legal malpractice and the documents submitted do not utterly…
