Lawyer is hired to represent buyer in an apartment building purchase. Purchase goes bad because instead of a regular multiple dwelling setting, the building is actually a Single Room Occupancy (SRO) which are an old form of a hotel. Buyer does not get what it expected. Claim against attorney is that it did not read
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.
Siblings, Inheritance and Legal Malpractice
Melendez v Renfroe, Driscoll & Foster, LLP 2020 NY Slip Op 32600(U) August 11, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 157344/2019 Judge: W. Franc Perry tells a familiar story. Familiar as in family. Legal malpractice can take place in any legal setting, whether injury, inheritance, invention or intellectual settings. Siblings fighting over ineritance…
Strategic Judgments and Legal Malpractice
One might engage in a plethora of unacceptable acts, yet not be responsible for legal malpractice. How can this be? Might one delay a case for two years and still be safe from a law suit? Can one arrange for a client to take a 23% interest rate litigation loan, yet still avoid a claim? …
Unsworn Affidavit is Really No Affidavit At All
Physician is sued for office rent. It’s a lot and the case comes down to whether he signed a guarantee or not. Eventually his attorneys submit an unsworn report (affidvavit ?) of a handwriting expert. Not good enough. Legal malpractice follows and is dismissed in Antell v Goldstein 2020 NY Slip Op 32573(U) August 6,…
Stating a Viable Claim for Legal Malpractice
The claim is that the attorneys waived an evidentiary hearing, without consent. Does that state a cause of action for legal malpractice? In Law Firm of Alexander D. Tripp, P.C. v Fiorilla
2020 NY Slip Op 32636(U) August 6, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 654991/2019 Judge: Lucy Billings it does.
“In the…
A Mistake? Yes. Proximate Cause? No
Most people as well as a lot of lawyers stop their legal malpractice analysis at the first element: departure from good practice. The battle in real legal malpractice cases almost always takes place in the third element: “but for” proximate causation. Lindenwood Vil., Section C Coop. Corp. v Denenberg ,2020 NY Slip Op 32572(U)…
Is There A Pervasive Prejudice In Favor of Attorneys?
There are scholarly works (in the form of law review articles) which argue that the courts tilt towards attorneys in legal malpractice cases. It is logical that such a prejudice might exist. Legal malpractice (and ethical) rules are written by attorneys, apply to attorneys, are reviewed by attorneys and are acted upon by judge-attorneys. Any…
Success Kills A Legal Malpractice Case
Plaintiff sued and was successful in obtaining a judgment. The judgment was uncollectible. In Ofman v Tenenbaum Berger & Shivers LLP 2020 NY Slip Op 32828(U) July 23, 2020
Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: 524482/2019 Judge: Richard Velasquez, Plaintiff alleged that had the attorney been quicker, the defendant would not have been able to…
Maria Carey, Legal Malpractice and Betrayal
Legal malpractice issues arise in all kinds of settings. in Wikked Entertainment, Inc. v Burbacki 2020 NY Slip Op 32375(U) July 20, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 652352/2018 Judge: Andrew Borrok the setting is a claimed hiring of a niece as an attorney to a talent management agency, and the claimed attempted…
Assignment of Legal Malpractice Claim Good; Facts Good; Dismissal Denial Affirmed
CPLR 3211 dismissals are granted more frequently than might be expected, Dedaj v Berisha decided on July 15, 2020 Appellate Division, Second Department is almost an exception. Two items are of interest. First, the assignment of the legal malpractice claim is affirmed, almost without comment. Second, the (a)(7) motion is denied almost mechanically. This is…