Edelman v Berman 2021 NY Slip Op 04120 Decided on June 30, 2021
Appellate Division, Second Department presents an interesting real estate legal malpractice claim. It illustrates two points. First: No document is absolutely required to show an attorney-client relationship. Second: Violation of a statute or rule, combined with alleged damage can support a legal
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.
Not Their Attorney, Not in a NY Court, Not Judiciary Law 487
Plaintiffs, parties to a FTC action, were co-parties with another, whom it seems, was treated differently by the attorneys. InLabMD, Inc. v Buchanan 2021 NY Slip Op 04084 Decided on June 24, 2021 Appellate Division, First Department we see them strike out. Dismissal is affirmed across the board.
“Despite their characterization in the amended complaint,…
“Troubling” But No Damages in a Deceit Claim
Lewis v Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price Hecht LLP 2021 NY Slip Op 03911
Decided on June 17, 2021 Appellate Division, First Department shows the high bar for a Judiciary Law § 487 claim. “Troubling” is just not enough.
“The alleged statements made by defendant Conley in the course of litigation are immune from liability for…
The Ebb and Flow of Legal Malpractice Dismissals
We’ve often asserted anecdotally that there are far more dismissals at the pleading stage in legal malpractice than in other areas of the law. Compare, for example, dismissals in medical malpractice. We believe that there are almost none. There are a lot of summary judgment dismissals in legal malpractice as well. Here, in Leeder v …
A Rare Legal Malpractice Trial Ends in Dismissal
After a verdict in favor of the attorney, ending in dismissal, the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed. The claimed departure was the failure to call a certain medical expert. The jury disagreed with Plaintiff and found for defendant in Warren v Silas 2021 NY Slip Op 03930
Decided on June 17, 2021 Appellate Division, First…
Relief Not Lightly Given is Refused Here
Judiciary Law § 487 is ancient, strict and sparse. It rarely succeeds and in Kaufman v Moritt Hock & Hamroff, LLP 2021 NY Slip Op 01969 [192 AD3d 1092] March 31, 2021 Appellate Division, Second Department is denied outright.
“Relief pursuant to Judiciary Law § 487 “is not lightly given” (Chowaiki & Co. Fine …
A Fact or Not a Fact At All?
Successful Judiciary Law § 487 cases are very rare. The hurdles are quite high for the proponent as is shown in Cordell Marble Falls, LLC v Kelly
2021 NY Slip Op 00833 [191 AD3d 760] February 10, 2021 Appellate Division, Second Department.
“In April 2013, nonparty Whitecap (US) Fund, L.P. (hereinafter Whitecap), commenced an action…
Misrepresentation, Yes Deceit, No.
The headline is somewhat misleading. There may have been deceit, but for Judiciary Law § 487 purposes, the deceit did not take place during a litigation. Pszeniczny v Horn
2021 NY Slip Op 02553 [193 AD3d 1091] April 28, 2021 Appellate Division, Second Department is the rare case where a complaint survives against an attorney…
Not Enough for a Judiciary Law 487 Claim
Dial Car Inc. v Tuch & Cohen, LLP 2021 NY Slip Op 30407(U) February 10, 2021 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: 514138/20 Judge: Leon Ruchelsman gives a nice description of the current standard of JL § 487 in the Second Department. This standard is strikingly different from that of the First Department.
“Concerning Judiciary…
A Complicated Real Estate Legal Malpractice Case
Vernum v Freyer 2021 NY Slip Op 50120(U) [70 Misc 3d 1218(A)] Decided on February 11, 2021 Supreme Court, Warren County Muller, J. describes a curious representation and ends with a split decision.
“Defendant is a licensed attorney in New York who focuses her practice primarily on real estate transactions. In May 2017 she was…