Your attorney negligently steered you into bankruptcy? It could be a good cause of action in legal malpractice. A few technicalities, however. Do you still have standing to sue the attorney? Likely not. In Burbacki v Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman, Formato, Ferrara & Wolf, LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 04128 Decided on May 29, 2019
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.
A Billionaire and a Lawyer Walk into an Arbitration Room…
Sounds like the start of a joke? This litigation is obviously not a joke for either side. Bois Schiller uses an arbitration clause in their engagement letter, requiring arbitration of anything “arising from or relating to the Engagement” and they will go to great lengths to enforce it. Even this particular billionaire client was unable…
The Attorney Judgment Rule: A Highly Fact-Based, Yet Subjective Area
We’re proud to let you know that we’re appearing in the New York Law Journal Outside Counsel Column with an article about the unique attorney-judgment rule, and how it affects legal malpractice litigation. Here is an excerpt:
“Society relies on professionals to guide, to treat, to represent and to know. We place an extraordinary amount…
An Accident, Followed By Years of Legal Malpractice Litigation
Sang Seok NA v Schietroma 2019 NY Slip Op 04017 Decided on May 22, 2019 Appellate Division, Second Department is the story of a bus accident, followed by hears of personal injury litigation again followed by years of legal malpractice litigation. In the end, not much was accomplished.
“In May 2003, the plaintiff commenced a…
The Account Stated Conundrum
Clients want results, and are sometimes hesitant about paying bills. Lawyers want to get paid, whether they are in good relations with the client or not. Let me repeat: Lawyers want to get paid. The greater portion of cases in which lawyers are parties concerns attorney fees. This is amply demonstrated by Adam Leitman Bailey, …
A Very Old Legal Malpractice Case Proceeds
A lawsuit arising from the 2008 stock market decline, involving whether there was downside protection, and what the attorney who was hired to pursue the brokerage did or did not do proceeds. Finkel v Wedeen 2019 NY Slip Op 31395(U) May 9, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 161019/2015 Judge: Paul A. Goetz …
We Said It, But, We Didn’t Mean It
Admissions that the law firm made a mistake are frowned upon by insurance companies as well as by CLE lecturers. Ortiz v Joel J. Turney, LLC 2019 NY Slip Op 03917 Decided on May 21, 2019
Appellate Division, First Department is a fine example for use in this years lecture series.
“Order, Supreme Court, Bronx…
A Pro-Se Judiciary Law 487 Claim Founders
Pro-se claims start at a disadvantage. This particular case seems to be the culmination of several failed efforts. The Appellate Division is dismissive, both in tone and content.
Estate of Lipin v Lipin 2019 NY Slip Op 03897 Decided on May 16, 2019 Appellate Division, First Department could be a shorter opinion, but not by…
You Can Almost Never Sue The Other Guy’s Attorney
Whether it’s social policy, whether it’s an attempt to prevent every case from turning into a legal malpractice coda, the rule is simple: absent fraud, collusion, malice or other special circumstances you just cannot successfully sue the other guy’s attorney. The alternative? Every case would then proceed to a legal malpractice case. So says Hinnant …
Too Late to Amend a Professional Malpractice Claim
The City of New York waited too long to try to amend its third-party complaint. The Court found that the City knew all the facts upon which the new complaint might be based and after 26 depositions or so, its just too late.
Commodore Constr. Corp. v City of New York 2019 NY Slip Op…