Rules concerning legal malpractice litigation are unique, difficult and adhered to. Rules about appellate records are even more specific and adhered to. In Lubin v Arnold E. DiJoseph, P.C. 2025 NY Slip Op 03057 Decided on May 21, 2025 the Appellate Division, Second Department dismissed a pro-se appeal from a pro-se litigation of a legal
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.
No Prior Written Notice to Municipality, No Legal Malpractice
Legal malpractice has the unique “but for” proximate cause elements not found in other tort claim analyses, and it frequently is the reason why cases are dismissed at a higher rate (on CPLR 3211 motions) than is seen in other professional negligence claims. Med mal claims, as an example, are rarely dismissed pre-answer.
“The plaintiff…
No Expert, No Summary Judgment
On its face, Allen v Thompson 2025 NY Slip Op 31783(U) May 15, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 160342/2020 Judge: Sabrina Kraus would seem to be a situation where a general practitioner takes on a complex employment discrimination case and then changes a word in the settlement papers in (what…
The Successor Counsel Defense in Legal Malpractice
Gordon v Martel 2025 NY Slip Op 02993 Decided on May 15, 2025 Appellate Division, First Department illustrates what happens when clients hire/fire attorneys, or attorneys successfully withdraw from cases. Where a mistake is made by attorney 1, and successor counsel attorney 2 has time to fix the mistake, attorney 1 will be immunized.
“This…
When It Takes Years For An Appeal To Be Decided
Consider these dates: Commercial restructuring takes place in 2013-2014. An action for replevin is started in 2015 and an order is entered in early 2016. An appeal of that order is decided in 2021. How is the statute of limitations for legal malpractice implicated ?
No Good Defense Here
Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP v Kestenbaum 2025 NY Slip Op 31695(U) May 9, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 656174/2023 Judge: Lyle E. Frank represents a very common situation in the NY legal malpractice world. Client is involved in expensive legal proceedings, (here, they were both defendants and plaintiffs in…
Second Attempt Successful at Summary Judgment
It is relatively rare to get a second chance at summary judgment, but in North Flats LLC v Belkin Burden Goldman, LLP 2025 NY Slip Op 31640(U) May 6, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 150420/2022 Judge: Richard G. Latin that’s exactly what happened.
“Plaintiff commenced this legal malpractice action against…
Some Problems are Timeliness, Some Are Substantive
Rotonde v Stewart Title Ins. Co. 2025 NY Slip Op 50728(U) Decided on May 6, 2025 Supreme Court, Westchester County Jamieson, J. is interesting as it deals with real estate fraud, and legal malpractice, although not regarding this particular dependent. The case also discusses how the fraud statute of limitations and the “discovery” onset are…
Defamation and Deceit Claims Lost
Judiciary Law 487 claims have rocketed in frequency over the past several years, which is ironic as it is a statute which first appeared in England in 1275. Here in Langton v Sussman & Watkins 2025 NY Slip Op 02765
Decided on May 7, 2025 Appellate Division, Second Department the plaintiff was removed from her…
Was It Trivial or Consequential?
Barrett v Sacks & Sacks, LLP 2025 NY Slip Op 02547 Decided on April 29, 2025 Appellate Division, First Department is an example of the “but for” part of the legal malpractice formula. The legal malpractice formula holds that a successful legal malpractice claim shows, (i) departure from good practice; (ii) which proximately causes a…