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.
Gill v. Doubherty, 2020 NY Slip Op 06758 [188 AD3d 1008] November 18, 2020 Appellate Division, Second Department is a reversal of Supreme Court’s denial of a CPLR 3211 motion.
“In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for violation of Judiciary Law § 487 and defamation, the defendants Iona College and Kathleen McElroy appeal,…
Pinkesz Mut. Holdings, LLC v Pinkesz 2021 NY Slip Op 05359 Decided on October 6, 2021 Appellate Division, Second Department makes an interesting distinction between “civil fraud upon the court” and Judiciary Law §487. There is a question raised (and not decided) whether certain conduct during the course of litigation can give rise to a…
Although the Appellate Division did not really link the case facts to the blackletter law, Bianco v Law Offs. of Yuri Prakhin 2020 NY Slip Op 07849 [189 AD3d 1326] December 23, 2020 Appellate Division, Second Departmentis worthwhile reading for the discussion of burdens in a CPLR 3211 setting and the basic definition of a…
In Pritsker v Zamansky LLC 2021 NY Slip Op 02767 [194 AD3d 432]
May 4, 2021 Appellate Division, First DepartmentPlaintiff tried to bring this claim in 201`7, only to face dismissal. When the Claim was brought again, albeit it a different form, it was again dismissed.
“This action is barred by the doctrine of…
Plaintiff tried to use an expert’s report which summarized the estate’s account on a summary judgment opposition in Leeder v Antonucci
2021 NY Slip Op 03978 [195 AD3d 1592] June 17, 2021 Appellate Division, Fourth Department. It was submitted after oral argument of the motion.
“Addressing appeal No. 1, we conclude that the court properly…
It’s not always true that plaintiff can rely upon the filing date of a consent to change attorney as the end of continuous representation. In certain circumstances it can end much earlier. Nevertheless, in Farina v Katsandonis, P.C.2021 NY Slip Op 05078 Decided on September 28, 2021
Appellate Division, First Department it was…
Darby Scott, Ltd. v Michael S. Libock & Co. LLC CPAs 2020 NY Slip Op 34343(U) December 31, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County
Docket Number: 653044/2013 Judge: Robert D. Kalish is a script for how a CPA malpractice case is put together and defended against. It ultimately failed for statute of limitations, lack…
Judiciary Law § 487 is hard to prove to a court’s satisfaction. It is not “lightly given” and rarely proceeds past the pleading stage. Dreamco Dev. Corp. v Empire State Dev. Corp. 2021 NY Slip Op 00952 [191 AD3d 1444] February 11, 2021 Appellate Division, Fourth Department is a recent example.
“We likewise agree with…
Was this merely bad luck or worse. In either event. plaintiffs lack standing to bring this action. In Schoolman v McAuliffe 2020 NY Slip Op 34228(U) December 21, 2020 Supreme Court, Suffolk County Docket Number: 4311/2019 Judge: Sanford Neil Berland we see:
“This action arises out of three petitions initially brought under Chapter 11 of…
Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v Sedgwick Claims Mgt. Servs., Inc. 2021 NY Slip Op 30438(U) February 16, 2021 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 653915/2015 Judge: Andrea Masley is a case concerning the failures at trial of a medical malpractice case, and how that can play out in different states.
“In this breach of…
