We have often wondered at the quick demise of businesses that have spent a lot of money and time setting up a storefront, only to close 4 or 5 months later. How could the owner invest so much and either mistake the customer base or make some other vast miscalculation? Agatha LLC v Heller
2018
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.
Two Lessons From a Legal Malpractice
Armstrong v. Blank Rome LLP, Supreme Court, New York County, Index No. 651881/2013, Justice David B. Cohen, J., offers three lessons in a matrimonial – legal malpractice case. The first is that such a case can survive the post-Katebi v. Fink landscape. The second is that an unexplained conflict of interest can lead to…
No Legal Malpractice in the Unauthorized Practice of Law
Spiegel v Ahearn 2018 NY Slip Op 32472(U) October 1, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County
Docket Number: 101251/2016 Judge: Melissa A. Crane is a very unusual case.
“Between 2006 and 2012, plaintiff pro se Michael Spiegel and defendants Thomas Ahearn, Liridona Kastrat, Kristopher Kennington, and David Ortiz were employed by the Hotel Edison (“Hotel”),…
Duplication but no Duplicity in this Professional Malpractice Case
The development of an apartment building in Manhattan is a mega-big thing. Not only does it cost a lot, but there are a large number of difficult rules. W 106 Dev. LLC v Pilla 2018 NY Slip Op 32596(U) October 10, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 654801/2016
Judge: Debra A. James …
Professional Malpractice v. Negligent Misrepresentation
In Sutton Animal Hosp. PLLC v D&D Dev., Inc. 2018 NY Slip Op 32425(U) September 24, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 652781/2016 Judge Debra A. James discusses the difference between negligence of a professional to one in privity and to one only in quasi-privity. The difference is enormous.
“Moving defendants are correct…
No Summary Judgment Here – For Either Side
Millian v Hafif & Assoc., PLLC 2018 NY Slip Op 51421(U) Decided on October 9, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County St. George, J. is the story of a condo purchase gone wrong. Many of the construction legal malpractice cases arise from water damages, as does this one.
“In this legal malpractice case, plaintiffs allege…
A Rare Split the Baby Decision
It is our experience that Courts more often dismiss an entire legal malpractice case rather then dissect the various claims and keep some while jettisoning the balance. Here, in Sehgal v DiRaimondo 2018 NY Slip Op 06619 Decided on October 4, 2018 the Appellate Division, First Department does just that.
“Plaintiff, a lawful permanent resident…
No Privity and No Near Privity Either
Yesterday, we discussed privity in a real estate setting in 71 Park Ave. S., LLC v Fox Rothschild LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 32451(U) October 1, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 158900/2017. Judge Saliann Scarpulla determined that one of the two plaintiffs lacked privity because it was formed after the…
Privity and Near Privity in a Real Estate Setting
It was a $22 Million real estate purchase, and it was built on faulty foundations. In 71 Park Ave. S., LLC v Fox Rothschild LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 32451(U) October 1, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 158900/2017 Judge Saliann Scarpulla determines that one of the entities has no privity (and therefore…
Narrow Exception to Privity? Yes. Continuous Representation? No.
It is the rare legal malpractice case that falls into the privity exception. As a matter of social policy and definitely to limit legal malpractice cases, Courts impose a very strict privity requirement. No attorney-client relationship, no legal malpractice case, with a small exception for fraud or malice. Webster v Sherman 2018 NY Slip Op…