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.

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Latest Articles

In Jonns v Fischbarg  2019 NY Slip Op 31919(U) July 3, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 150729/2017 Judge Kathryn Freed gives a nice cogent explanation of two recurring legal malpractice principles.  One is how the statute of limitations is calculated and the other is whether multiple causes of action.  We’ll look at the duplication between legal malpractice claims and breach of fiduciary duty claims. “In August of 2010, Jonns, together with a group of…
In Jonns v Fischbarg  2019 NY Slip Op 31919(U) July 3, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 150729/2017 Judge Kathryn Freed gives a nice cogent explanation of two recurring legal malpractice principles.  One is how the statute of limitations is calculated and the other is whether multiple causes of action.  We’ll look at the statute of limitations today. “In August of 2010, Jonns, together with a group of investors, sought to purchase the Charles Restaurant…
Client hires attorney to do Surrogate’s Court case.  Attorney hires CPA to do Estate tax returns.  CPA fails to file the returns timely and loses a six-figure refund on the statute of limitations.  CPA is sued and motion practice follows.  In Mazur Carp & Rubin, P.C. v Cohen & Schaeffer, C.P.A., P.C.  2019 NY Slip Op 31735(U)  June 18, 2019  Supreme Court, New York County    Docket Number: 153583/2014  Judge: Kathryn E. Freed mostly finds for Plaintiff. “Plaintiffs Mazur…
Departure, Proximate Cause and Ascertainable Damages are the holy triumvirate of legal malpractice.  Miami Capital, LLC v Hurwitz  2019 NY Slip Op 05332  Decided on July 2, 2019 Appellate Division, First Department illustrates what happens when one or more of these elements are missing, or at best, speculative. “Defendant’s motion was properly granted because while plaintiff anticipates that it could be subject to a rescission claim at some point in the future, such alleged damages are…
Kislev Partners, LLP v Sidley LLP  2019 NY Slip Op 31850(U)  June 27, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 152739/2018 Judge: Saliann Scarpulla is an example of a multi-million dollar tax shelter fraud case in which Plaintiffs waited too long to sue. “Plaintiffs claim that, in late 2002, they identified a potential real estate project in Lower  Manhattan. They anticipated earning substantial profits on the project, which ultimately resulted in a “16-story residential tower designed by the renowned architect Richard…
While it is fine and well to identify a departure from good practice, it is similarly necessary to prove all the elements of legal malpractice.  Even more important, it is necessary to follow motion practice and procedures. Karimian v Karlin  2019 NY Slip Op 05193  Decided on June 27, 2019  Appellate Division, First Department is a good example. “Plaintiff failed to demonstrate a reasonable excuse for his default in responding to defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint (CPLR…
Many people take a look at a legal malpractice situation and stop after identifying a departure.  In more common language, after finding a mistake, the analysis ends.  Failure to identify and have all elements of legal malpractice will lead to failure. Sapienza v Becker & Poliakoff  2019 NY Slip Op 05218 Decided on June 27, 2019 Appellate Division, First Department is an example: “Plaintiff’s fraud claim was properly dismissed, as plaintiff did not allege “actual pecuniary loss…
Urias v Daniel P. Buttafuoco & Assoc., PLLC  2019 NY Slip Op 05180 Decided on June 26, 2019 Appellate Division, Second Department speaks about Judiciary Law § 487 and legal malpractice.  In this summary judgment case, the legal malpractice claims remain in view of opposing experts.  The JL claims are dismissed. “The plaintiff commenced this action, inter alia, to recover damages for legal malpractice. The defendants Daniel P. Buttafuoco & Associates, PLLC, and Daniel P. Buttafuoco (hereinafter together…
David A. Kaminsky & Assoc., PC v Brenner  2019 NY Slip Op 51028(U)  Decided on June 24, 2019  Appellate Term, First Department presents an unusual situation.  The Appellate Term recognizes that there is a viable legal malpractice claim, but allows summary judgment on fees to be affirmed. “We sustain the grant of plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in this action for unpaid legal fees. Plaintiff submitted evidence establishing the reasonable value of its services (see Kwangjin Song…
Legal malpractice is fascinating, in part, because of the wide range of underlying disputes in which it pops up.  Take for example the Manhattan apartment purchaser.  She wants city views.  She buys into an new development, and does so will prior to completion of the building.  What exactly are city views?  In this case her windows faced north and there were many buildings directly north of her.  There may have been 50 or more blocks…