Real Estate claims fill a large part of the Legal Malpractice docket in New York. This is certainly not surprising, as real estate might be the largest economic engine for New York City, and there is certainly a lot of money moving around in the real estate market. Moncho v Miller 2020 NY Slip Op
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.
Obligation or Favor? It Makes A Difference
VPC Projects, LLC v Golenbock Eiseman Assor Bell & Peskoe LLP 2020 NY Slip Op 32069(U) June 2, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 156097/2016 Judge: Margaret A. Chan was decided on the question of whether investigating insurance coverage for a nuisance complaint was part of the attorney-retention or merely a ministerial act,…
Death, Taxes and Real Estate in a Legal Malpractice Setting
Legal malpractice cases frequently revolve around real estate, and almost as frequently around intra-sibling disputes. Wong v Yeung-Ha 2020 NY Slip Op 31832(U) June 11, 2020
Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: 505276/18, Judge: Karen B. Rothenberg hits both issues when a $14 Million estate consisting of Brooklyn and Hong Kong properties devolves into a…
The Initial Client Meeting and Legal Malpractice
A client walks into the office and tells you he was hurt. You discuss his situation, and tell him that you will not take the case. You hand him a letter saying you will not be taking the case. Can there be liability when he later discovers that he could have sued the City of…
A Rare Procedural Win on the Statute of Limitations
Legal malpractice plaintiffs rarely get procedural wins. Fernandez v McCarthy 2020 NY Slip Op 03079 Decided on May 28, 2020 Appellate Division, First Department is an exception.
“Under the circumstances, we find that, although plaintiff delayed in seeking an extension of his time to re-serve the complaint, the motion court appropriately exercised its discretion when…
Libel, Slander, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress and Legal Malpractice?
This is an attorney v. attorney case in which it is alleged that defendants withdrew from defending plaintiff in a disciplinary action and then engaged in a campaign to sully his name. Bearing in mind that plaintiff is both an attorney and pro-se, the outcome of this motion to dismiss is not particularly surprising. As…
Call It What You Will, It’s Still Analyzed as Malpractice
Lawyers are, if nothing else, inventive. A claim against another lawyer is almost always subject to legal malpractice analysis, and with that, legal malpractice standards. Claims of fraud, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, intentional infliction of emotional distress, libel, slander, prima facie tort, and even more. Nevertheless, courts almost always revert to the…
Digging In Unsuccessfully
Litigators should read Garr Silpe, P.C. v Gorman 2020 NY Slip Op 31517(U) May 20, 2020 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 650247/2017
Judge: Kathryn E. Freed and consider whether how to address the Court on the issue of “fundamental fairness.”
“”Under the doctrine oflaw of the case, the parties or those…
When the Statute of Limitations Looms
The situation is not unusual. Attorneys represent client in a transnational setting, and the transaction is compromised, but not yet finished. Three years are about to pass. What is the plaintiff to do? If you do not sue, the statute will pass. if you do sue, defendant will say that it is too early. Economic …
A Simple Notice Would Have Sufficed
Spoliation of evidence is a certain basis for dismissal. Negligently, or even worse, intentionally allowing key evidence to be lost or destroyed deprives the opponent of discoverable exculpatory evidence. Such loss is rarely countenanced.
Manno v Hayes Law Practice, PLLC 2020 NY Slip Op 31228(U) May 6, 2020 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: Index…