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.
Client agrees to arbitrate attorney fee issues. Is Client required to arbitrate a legal malpractice claim as well? In Protostorm, Inc. v Foley & Lardner LLP 2021 NY Slip Op 02227 Decided on April 08, 2021
Appellate Division, First Department the answer is yes.
“Plaintiff retained defendant Foley & Lardner LLP to maintain a malpractice…
Scarola Malone & Zubatov LLP v Ellner 2021 NY Slip Op 31199(U) April 8, 2021 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 651324/2017 Judge: Anthony Cannataro pits a “sophisticated businessman, with degrees from Wharton and the University of Chicago” against the attorneys in a legal malpractice counterclaim. Sophisticated businessman loses.
“Where a sophisticated client imposes…
It is a bedrock principle of litigation that the vast majority of cases have to settle if they are to be resolved in any fashion. Courts are not able to try all cases. If settlements were not the norm, then litigants would routinely go broke trying to finalize cases which sat for years and years…
The lesson of Shaofeng Yang v Lao Ma Spicy Inc. 2021 NY Slip Op 31150(U) April 6, 2021 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 156063/2019 Judge: Verna Saunders is that a broad release, even in a commercial franchise setting, may eclipse a later legal malpractice suit.
“Plaintiffs assert, in their amended complaint, that this…
Generally speaking, there has been a stark split between the First and Second Departments over the standard for a Judiciary Law § 487 claim. In the First Department there was a requirement of a “chronic and extreme pattern of legal delinquency” and in the Second Department a single egregious incident of deceit was sufficient. Amtrust …
Some years ago there was a thriving cottage industry in creating tax shelters. It took the IRS a few years to catch up, but it did so with a vengeance. Boesky v Levine 2021 NY Slip Op 02059 Decided on April 01, 2021 Appellate Division, First Department is the story of an attorneys travels through…
In a very short affirmance, the First Department upheld the dismissal of what was a very long short case in Garr Silpe, P.C. v Gorman. 2021 NY Slip Op 01944 Decided on March 30, 2021 Appellate Division, First Department . Plaintiff hired her ninth attorney mid trial, and not surprisingly, did not do well at…
Plaintiff defended a suit by her attorneys seeking a contingent fee on the basis that they settled the case without her authorization. Customarilly, these cases are a win for the attorney. Not yet, in Silbowitz, Garafola, Silbowitz, Schatz & Frederick, LLP v Paravas 2021 NY Slip Op 01871
Decided on March 25, 2021 Appellate…
How did you fall? is a question asked at any trip and fall case deposition of plaintiff. Plaintiffs have to be carefully prepared to answer this question, as it can be awfully important. Courts and juries like to hear certain phrases and descriptions. A casual “I’m not sure” or other answer which does not specify…
Don’t rock the boat is often the wrong advice. in LePatner Project Solutions LLC v 320 W. 115 St. 2021 NY Slip Op 01510 Decided on March 16, 2021 Appellate Division, First Department objecting made a big difference in an account stated situation. Counterclaiming for legal malpractice also made a big difference.
“”[E]ither retention of…
