Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP v Kestenbaum 2025 NY Slip Op 33276(U) August 29, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 656174/2023 Judge: Lyle E. Frank stands for the proposition that outside parties which are not part of the retainer agreement, and paid fees on behalf of the client might seek unjust enrichment
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.
An “Affidavit that Contained False Statements” Insufficient for a Judiciary Law 487 Claim
In the past 10 years, judiciary Law 487 claims have become more and more popular. Weaver v Hatem 2025 NY Slip Op 04931 Decided on September 10, 2025
Appellate Division, Second Department is an example of such a claim being denied with little comment.
“In September 2019, the plaintiff commenced this action against Albert A.
It’s Delay + Prejudice, Not Just Delay
In Parkoff v Rieger & Fried, LLP 2025 NY Slip Op 04914 Decided on September 10, 2025 Appellate Division, Second Department Plaintiff had an otherwise good claim against the attorneys, and, after a while, asked to amend the complaint to add the otherwise good claim. Supreme Court said no. The AD reversed.
“In September 2021…
A Complicated Loan Deal Gone Bad and Legal Malpractice
Salamone v Deily & Glastetter, LLP 2025 NY Slip Op 04846 Decided on September 04, 2025 Appellate Division, First Department demonstrates how clever loan scrivining can run afoul of usury laws and backfire.
“Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Shlomo Hagler, J.), entered May 8, 2024, which granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint, unanimously…
Oral Agreements, Meet and Confers and CPLR 2104
In Prospect Capital Corp. v Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP 2025 NY Slip Op 32996(U) July 24, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 653941/2022 Judge Margaret A. Chan gives a primer on “at issue” privilege issues, how emails are currently handled under CPLR 2104 and how complicated discovery of written documents…
The Very Very Very Rare Successful Motion for Partial Summary Judgment for Plaintiff
In Bethelite Community Baptist Church, Inc. v Shiryak, Bowman, Anderson, Gill & Kadochnikov, LLP 2025 NY Slip Op 32826(U) July 22, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 160036/2022 Judge: Paul A. Goetz. Plaintiff threads the eye of the needle and obtains partial summary judgment on liability. Here is how it…
The Very Rare McCoy v. Feinman Statute Of Limitations Exception
In one stunning paragraph, in Campbell v Law Off. of Solomon Rosengarten 2025 NY Slip Op 04700 Decided on August 20, 2025 the Appellate Division, Second Department illustrates the oft-unheard of exception to the standard commencement date for the statute of limitations in legal malpractice.
The paragraph is highlighted here: “”To state a cause of…
Lose in South Carolina, Lose Here
Dodson v Adorama Camera Inc. 2025 NY Slip Op 51258(U) Decided on July 10, 2025
Supreme Court, New York County Lebovits, J. holds that there is no Judiciary Law 487 violation in opposing this particular action seeking to domesticate a valid sister-state judgment.
“This is an action to domesticate a South Carolina judgment obtained by…
Lost An Employment Discrimination Case, Lost a Legal Malpractice Case
Stinnett v Derek Smith Law Group, PLLC 2025 NY Slip Op 04677 Decided on August 13, 2025 Appellate Division, Second Department is a decision that doesn’t give a lot of facts. What were the deficient allegations of potential success on the employment discrimination case? What were the allegations of that which was not done? We…
Another Matrimonial Legal Malpractice Case Wrecked In the Settlement Allocution
Continuing a line of cases containing the unique Schiller v. Bender Burroughs & Rosenthal allocution anomaly, Valentina v Beckerman 2025 NY Slip Op 04682 decided on August 13, 2025 Appellate Division, Second Department finds that the pro-forma question “are you satisfied with your attorney’s representation?” kills a subsequent legal malpractice claim that she was “effectively…