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.
Weinberg v Kaminsky 2018 NY Slip Op 07652 Decided on November 13, 2018
Appellate Division, First Department is an example of the low-success attempt to recast a previously dismissed legal malpractice cause of action in another form. Here, the Court simply wiped out the second attempt.
“Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Manuel Mendez, J.),…
A slight exaggeration, but in 195 Hawthorne Partners, LLC. v Thompson 2018 NY Slip Op 32804(U) October 30, 2018 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: 506136/18
Judge: Leon Ruchelsman there are pages and pages of discussion of a back-and-forth transfer, deeds, mortgages, foreclosures of what must be a valuable property. The attorneys are third-partied…
We’re proud to announce that our “It’s Over, Now What” can be found in today’s NYLJ.
From the article:
“The attorney-client relationship has a limited lifespan. Generally, it is a project-based temporary business relationship, albeit a fiduciary one.
Whether the representation is short or long, transactional or litigation based, it must someday end. It may…
Gur v Nadel & Clarlo, P.C. 2018 NY Slip Op 32779(U) October 29, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 650275/2018 Judge: Arthur F. Engoron is an example of a legal malpractice case pled without regard to how one connects the complained of conduct with a bad economic outcome, or loss of a claim. …
Wang v Hon 2018 NY Slip Op 32686(U) October 23, 2018 Supreme Court, Queens County
Docket Number: 12353/17 Judge: Allan B. Weiss is the story of a million law suits over two side-by-side houses in Queens where the litigation is never-ending. Defendant has a judgment lien which has attached to the neighbor’s house, and Plaintiff…
Perhaps the better question is how did the underwriter not see subsequent new stories that the coal mine was a fiction?
“According to the February 2016 complaint, plaintiff was co-lead underwriter of a public offering of stock by Puda Coal, Inc., whose principal asset was its 90% interest in Shanxi Coal. Defendant was retained as…
How often is it that a judge gives legal advice? Rarely does the Court set forth what whould have been the correct cause of action and then advise that there is still time. Ferousis v Santamarina
2018 NY Slip Op 32725(U) Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 154418/2018
Judge: Arlene P. Bluth is interesting,…
Superstorm Sandy caused a lot of damage, and exposed quite a few problems. These latent problems only came to light as the water receded. Glazier Group, Inc. v Nova Cas. Co. 2018 NY Slip Op 32576(U) October 5, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 159101/2014 Judge: Melissa A. Crane is an example of…
Cathedral Gardens Condo Assn. v 110th St. Equities, LLC. 2018 NY Slip Op 32618(U)
October 15, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 600175/2009
Judge: William Franc Perry stands for the principle that there can be either direct liability for a failure to provide professional services (tort) which brings “loss of asset” style damages,…
Aristakesian v Ballon Stoll Bader & Nadler, P.C. 2018 NY Slip Op 07084 Decided on October 24, 2018 Appellate Division, Second Department stands for the proposition that Courts really, really shy away from allowing Judiciary Law § 487 cases to go forward. Here, the logic is that while the attorneys may have been deceitful,…
