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.
Billiard Balls Mgt. LLC v Mintzer Sarowitz Zeris Ledva & Meyers, LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 32019(U) August 17, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 153477/2016 Judge: Carol R. Edmead is an interesting twist on the privity question.
“This is a legal malpractice action arising out of an automobile accident. Defendant Mintzer, Sarowitz,…
The question of limited retainers v. handling the entire action for a client comes up in Provenzano v Cellino & Barnes, P.C. 2018 NY Slip Op 32063(U) August 16, 2018 Supreme Court, Suffolk County Docket Number: 14-18725 Judge: Joseph C. Pastoressa. Plaintiff was injured in a motor vehicle accident which Cellino & Barnes took. They…
Judiciary Law § 487 is an ancient part of the common law, recently elevated from a mere statute by the Court of Appeals. That being said, the First and the Second Departments have a major difference in an agreed upon definition. Here, in Bill Birds, Inc. v Stein Law Firm, P.C.
2018 NY Slip Op…
In general, a legal malpractice case based upon a problemed medical malpractice case may be the most difficult litigation case known; it requires competence in two different spheres, and a lot of experts. A snow and ice case is difficult for plaintiff, since there are so many defenses. A legal malpractice case based upon a…
In the end, it only matters that the law firm was given notice of the claims. D’Angelo v Kujawski 2018 NY Slip Op 05750 Decided on August 15, 2018 Appellate Division, Second Department stands for the proposition that once the law firm had notice of the claims, then substitution of the proper party as plaintiff…
This entire episode could have been prevented. The most likely reason for the problem is that the landlord purchased the building at a foreclosure sale and never became aware that the prior owner had entered into a stunning stipulation. Beyond that mere fact, it is true that ancient SRO regulations on the UWS created a…
A thorough read of the decision in Matter of Gomez 2018 NY Slip Op 32127(U) August 6, 2018
Surrogate’s Court, Nassau County Docket Number: 2011-365510/B Judge: Margaret C. Reilly is an eye-opener. Look at the billings and look at the Court’s cuts. It’s worth a complete read.
Brothers-in-law can be a problem to a successful car sales operation as is sadly set forth in Brausch v Devery 2018 NY Slip Op 31929(U) August 7, 2018 Supreme Court, Suffolk County
Docket Number: 11-28918 Judge: Denise F. Molia. Plaintiff has a nice little used car lot and allows his brother-in-law to help him run…
We are pleased to report that the Law Office of Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been selected once again for Best Lawyers in America – 2019 for Legal Malpractice.
Well, not for simply hiring an e-Discovery company, but for hiring a pet e-Discovery company which egregiously overbilled might lead to liability for the law firm. We look at FTI Consulting, Inc. v CT Miami, LLC 2018 NY Slip Op 31923(U) August 6, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County
Docket Number: 654062/2016 Judge: Melissa A.…
