A New Mexico Business Weekly report tells us that 80% of New Mexico attorneys carry legal malpractice insurance. 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.
New Legal Malpractice Cases
Seattle Newspaper unearths more Cases
Here is more fallout from the “secret files” series in the Seattle Times series. We’ve been reporting on this series.
Think Piece on Legal Malpractice and Class Actions
Here’s a think piece on the Maine trial, which discusses class actions and the expectations of clients.
Legal Malpractice Practitioner faces Criminal Charges
Poland Springs Legal Malpractice Case Ends
The case ended with a big number for the plaintniffs. We’ve reported on it all week. Here are the results.
Legal Malpractice Dismissed, Disgorgement Claims Remain
The New York Law Journal reports a case of interest today: Bogoraz v. Simels from New York County. Justice Acosta wrote an opinion on the issue of “colorable innocence” in a legal malpractice action.
Here, plaintiff’s legal malpractice action was started while still under prosecution, after moving to a new attorney. In addition to the…
West Virginia Attorney wins Legal Malpractice Suit
The West Virginia Record tells us:
“An attorney who advised the late John Faltis was found not guilty in a legal malpractice case March 10 in Monongalia Circuit Court.
David Shapiro, of Spilman, Thomas and Battle, will not have to pay nearly $5 million that was sought by the estate of Faltis, which claimed…
Legal Malpractice Insurer may Disclaim?
Here is a blurb from an article [needs Lexis subscription]:
PHOENIX – A professional liability insurer is entitled to deny coverage for an underlying legal malpractice action against a law firm because the insured made a material, factual misrepresentation in its insurance application, a federal judge found Feb. 27 (James River Insurance Co. v. Hebert…
Attorney Disqualification and Suing Plaintiff’s Attorney in Legal Malpractice
Here is a case reported from today’s New York Law Journal which reports a very common situation. Client has a problem with the law firm which will eventually become the defendant in a legal malpractice case. Client goes to law firm 2 to try to fix the case, which cannot be fixed. Law firm 2…