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.
As is almost always true, plaintiffs are unsuccessful at a summary judgment motion in legal malpractice settings. The Court can almost always find questions of fact which still remain in the “but for” area even after a departure from good practice is poundingly demonstrated.
Eurotech Constr. Corp. v Fischetti & Pesce, LLP 2019 NY Slip…
We’ve not heard the phrase before, but are familiar with the situation. Plaintiff gets into financial trouble and looks to fix a mortgage with a modification, a refinance, or some other method. Things go bad from there. Ramirez v Donado Law Firm, P.C. 2019 NY Slip Op 01244 [169 AD3d 940] February 20, 2019 Appellate…
Strujan v Kaufman & Kahn, LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 00630 [168 AD3d 1114] January 30, 2019 Appellate Division, Second Department is the end of the line for this case, and going forward Plaintiff must ask permission to file papers.
“Since the defendants represented the plaintiff’s adversaries in a prior action, the causes of action…
Serrone v Southbridge Towers, Inc. 2019 NY Slip Op 32472(U) August 20, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 653567/2018
Judge: Francis A. Kahn III is the story of a foreclosure in what was once a Mitchel-Lama building. Plaintiff succeeds on this motion in keeping the attorneys in the case.
“This is an action…
Gobindram v Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, P.C., 2019 NY Slip Op 06190
Decided on August 21, 2019 Appellate Division, Second Department stand for the proposition that when an attorney has a second chance to correct mistakes and fails to do so, a claim for legal malpractice may be good.
“The defendants represented the plaintiff…
Legal malpractice cases are especially prone to statute of limitations defenses, as the consequences of the departure from good practice may not come up for a while. The standard is rather strict. As we see in Webster v Sherman, 2018 NY Slip Op 06590 [65 AD3d 738] October 3, 2018 Appellate Division, Second Department the…
We are pleased to announce that Best Lawyers 2020 recognized Andrew Lavoott Bluestone for his work in the area of Legal Malpractice litigation. He has been selected continuously since 2012.
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review – that is, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their…
Pinto-Bedoya v Yacoob 2019 NY Slip Op 51332(U) Decided on August 14, 2019 Supreme Court, Kings County Rivera, J. is the ridiculous story of how some individuals were conned into getting involved in a mortgage fraud ring. Question: how did the attorneys not know what was going on?
“The Pinto-Bedoya’s complaint bearing Index Number 75822/2008,…
Two threshold issues in legal malpractice, which are not mirrored in other areas of the law are standing and privity. While intertwined, they are not merely two names for the same thing. Illustrated by Matter of Benson 2019 NY Slip Op 51331(U) Decided on August 12, 2019
Surrogate’s Court, Albany County Pettit, J. only certain…
Plaintiffs attend a settlement conference and agree to settle the case. They are then prepared for the allocution by their attorneys, which is a series of questions by the judge designed to document that the settlement is voluntary, not coerced. The same questions are typically asked of the defendant. The last question, which has no…
