Traditionally, plaintiffs plead a triumvirate of claims against attorneys consisting of legal malpractice, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. Additional claims are rarely seen. In Ramirez v Donado Law Firm, P.C. 2019 NY Slip Op 01244 Decided on February 20, 2019
the Appellate Division, Second Department goes through a long list of claims
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 Standing, No Malpractice Case
There are four elements of legal malpractice. “Standing” is not really one of them, but continually lurks in the background. Your opponent’s lawyer departs from good practice? Too bad. You lack privity and you lack standing. Your company retains the lawyer and you, individually want to sue? Too bad. You lack privity and you lack…
In A Medically Induced Coma, But Still Competent to Sign Documents
Granted, reading a decision does not always illuminate the facts behind the case, but Gilbo v Horowitz 2019 NY Slip Op 30320(U) February 9, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County
Docket Number: 158727/2017 Judge: Margaret A. Chan is very startling. It’s a legal malpractice case along with a declaratory judgment that he was incompetent to…
20 Defaults? Judiciary Law violation? Apparently None
When plaintiff pro-se’s legal expert says there were 20 defaults, was this a flight of fancy or a typo in which there were two defaults? Either way, the case is headed for dismissal rather than summary judgment.
Ziemianowicz v Janowski 2019 NY Slip Op 30326(U) February 6, 2019 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: 521427/2016 …
Too Late for This Legal Malpractice Case
Sclafani v Kahn 2019 NY Slip Op 01115 Decided on February 13, 2019 is an example of how the Appellate Division, Second Department decides statute of limitation / continuous representation cases. This legal malpractice claim arises from a loan closing where security for the loan was not handled.
“In January 2015, the plaintiffs commenced this…
A Lot of Litigating Over a Smaller Case
Attorney fees collections are frequently said to be the major cause of legal malpractice litigation. Some lawyers have resorted to starting litigation lending setups which lend money to their clients, thereby arranging for the attorney to be paid and the client to be the subject of a high-interest litigation loan. Justicebacker Inc. v Abeles 2019…
What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Legal Malpractice
We’re proud to present an article in today’s Outside Counsel Column in the New York Law Journal about legal malpractice.
When we speak of legal malpractice, generally the discussion is rooted on a “departure” from good practice. The missed deadline, the rejected brief, the failure to appear in court, the missed argument. However, departure is…
No Legal Malpractice in this Child Custody-Support Case
Legal malpractice in child custody / child support settings is notoriously difficult to prove. To begin, there is often a privity problem. If that issue is solved, then the speculation question of “what would the judge have done if…” comes up. It seems that this was the shortcoming in Chaudhuri v Kilmer 2018 NY Slip…
Not a Limited Engagement Letter
Attorneys are expected zealously to represent clients, all within the cannons of ethics, of course. However, “that wasn’t my job” or “I wasn’t retained to do that” is a frequent defense in legal malpractice cases. Exeter Law Group LLP v Immortalana Inc. 2018 NY Slip Op 01269 [158 AD3d 576] February 22, 2018 Appellate Division,…
The Common Interest Privilege in Discovery
The Second Department gives a black-letter lecture on the common interest privilege, in a legal malpractice setting. Saint Annes Dev. Co. v Russ 2018 NY Slip Op 00451 [157 AD3d 919]
January 24, 2018 Appellate Division, Second Department holds that:
“The common-interest privilege is an exception to the traditional rule that the presence of a…