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.
On Lam v Arnold Montag Architect 2019 NY Slip Op 30712(U) March 13, 2019 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: 522413/2017 Judge: Pamela L. Fisher discusses the relationship between plaintiffs and sub-contractors of their architects and other professionals, and the requirement of privity in a breach of contract case.
“On March 4, 2013, BTE entered…
Attorney billing is the center of the attorney world, and the greatest part of attorney-client litigation arises from or concerns attorney billing. Ledyard v Bical 2019 NY Slip Op 30739(U) March 20, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 150470/2018 Judge: Arthur F. Engoron is an excellent example. Arrested, indicted and shown the evidence…
In a general sense, the failure to perfect is a failure to follow up. The attorneys did some work, but then failed to sew up the final product. In A & L Vil. Mkt., Inc. v 344 Vil., Inc. 2019 NY Slip Op 02304 Decided on March 27, 2019 Appellate Division, Second Department it was…
Since attorney fees seem to power the world, allowing for litigation and defense, and accounting for more than 60% of all attorney law suits, it is not surprising to see Soni v. Pryor come up again and again. In McGlynn v Burns & Harris 2019 NY Slip Op 02335 Decided on March 27, 2019
Appellate…
In Nowlin v Schiano 2019 NY Slip Op 02216 Decided on March 22, 2019 Appellate Division, Fourth Department affirmed the decision of Supreme Court, Monroe County. With a recitation of Supreme Court’s standard, it concludes that there is no substance to the pro-se claim. Further explantion, there is none.
“Memorandum: In this legal malpractice action,…
Continuous representation tolls the statute of limitations, and requires actual work, a mutual understanding between client and attorney of the need for the actual work along with a mutual relationship of trust and confidence. In RJR Mech. Inc. v Ruvoldt 2019 NY Slip Op 01844
Decided on March 14, 2019 Appellate Division, First Department some…
In Pugliese v Martin Law Group, P.C. 2019 NY Slip Op 01810 Decided on March 13, 2019
the Appellate Division, Second Department reminds that legal malpractice consists of more than a mere mistake. Plaintiff must still prove proximate or “but for” cause. Merely failing to perfect an appeal is insufficient.
“ORDERED that the order is…
Is the client satisfied with the settlement is different from whether the client is “satisfied with the representation” which, in the past few years has taken on a totemic power to kill legal malpractice cases. Clients, when/if asked at the settlement allocution whether they are satisfied with their attorney’s representation and required to answer. If…
An-Jung v Rower LLC 2019 NY Slip Op 30600(U) March 6, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 152694/2018 Judge: Francis A. Kahn III is a thoughtful discussion of the difference between legal malpractice and an overbiling case. Here, in a matrimonial setting, plaintiff’s case is that the bills lack any discernible detail and…
The attorney client privilege is sacrosanct, no? Well, not really. Heth v Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke LLP 2019 NY Slip Op 30555(U) March 5, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 650379/2015 Judge: Andrew Borrok demonstrates what happens when the client possibly discusses how attorney 1 is handling the case with attorney 2.…
