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.
It is ironic when attorney errors harm an otherwise good legal malpractice case. Leeder v Antonucci 2019 NY Slip Op 05898 [174 AD3d 1469] July 31, 2019 Appellate Division, Fourth Department is an example.
“We reject plaintiff’s contention that Supreme Court erred in granting the cross motion with respect to the biofuel cause of action.…
The dreaded thin letter is no different from the short appellate decision. It bodes poorly for the applicant. Bautista v Hach & Rose, LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 07528 Decided on October 22, 2019 Appellate Division, First Department. Here is the entire decision (no edits):
“Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Lucindo Suarez, J.), entered October…
An attorney sues the client for legal fees. Client has two choices. Resist the fee claim on its merits (overbilled,work not performed, work not contemplated in contract) or add a claim for legal malpractice. Either way, the client must make the legal malpractice claim stick now. It cannot be brought later.
Incarceration for not paying child support is unusual but certainly not unheard of. This case illustrates the defense strategy of receding into the background and waiting while the controversy swirls around the other defendants. In this case more than a year went by after a default and the defendant obtained dismissal. Rivera v Kerr 2019…
What is an attorney at a real estate closing required to do and when does a failure to do so bleed into legal malpractice? Mah v 40-44 W. 120th St. Assoc., LLC, 2019 NY Slip Op 33071(U) October 10, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 650927/2016 Judge: Robert R. Reed provides some answers. …
How does a release work and what are its limits? This is the question that Avnet, Inc. v Deloitte Consulting LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 33026(U)
October 11, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 653146/2019 Judge: Jennifer G. Schecter answers in great detail. The opinion comes with extensive and fascinating footnotes. They are…
Seaman v Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 07510 Decided on October 17, 2019 Appellate Division, First Department illustrates to bedrock principles of legal malpractice. The first is that of privity and the second is that of demonstrable technical mistakes v. dashed expectations. The attorneys working on the post-nup were not in…
A claim for legal malpractice has been made, and damages in a commercial setting are alleged. How does one prove them, what are the rules and what is the difference between general and consequential damages? In Electron Trading LLC v Perkins Coie LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 33019(U) October 9, 2019
Supreme Court, New York…
In a stark turnabout, Gross v Aronson, Mayefsky & Sloan, LLP
2019 NY Slip Op 32972(U) October 9, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County
Docket Number: 153274/2017 Judge: Anthony Cannataro illustrates the compelling defense given to prior counsel when successor counsel takes over and fails to fix a problem facing the first attorney. If…
Legal malpractice litigation is rarely centered on the “mistake” or “departure”. All too often that elements is starkly clear. The battle goes on in the “but for” or “proximate cause” elements. Wang v Simon, Eisenberg & Baum, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 07062 [165 AD3d 546] October 23, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department is a…
