Alternative Dispute Resolution

More frequently than ever, businesses are looking for nonjudicial methods of resolving issues that are more cost-effective and less time consuming than traditional litigation.  Our team at Lippes Mathias has outstanding experience and depth in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). 

 

Lippes Mathias has a litigation team of more than 55 attorneys with in-depth experience in all aspects of business, commercial and employment litigation, working collaboratively across eight offices in multiple states. The firm is well aware of the increasing importance of ADR outcomes and the need for competent and experienced litigators, mediators, and arbitrators to navigate the process. The firm’s ADR Team responds to that need. 

 

The firm has assembled a select group of its commercial and business attorneys with extensive arbitration and/or mediation experience with the goal of providing all types of ADR assistance to our clients. The practice includes attorneys with strong subject matter knowledge as well as extensive arbitration/mediation training and actual ADR case participation. Our Team specifically targets those substantive areas where ADR can have the most impact and is most frequently employed by litigants and courts. For example, the ADR Team includes attorneys with in-depth experience in areas such as: 

 

Within the employment area, the ADR team includes litigators, mediators and arbitrators with experience in classification, wage and hour disputes, executive compensation, non-compete clauses, federal and state labor laws, and state and federal discrimination claims, such as Title VII, ADA, ADEA, and ERISA.  Within the construction area, the ADR group includes attorneys with in-depth experience in resolving disputes related to contracts (including without limitation default, termination, defective work, change orders, delays and mechanic’s liens) as well as building failures, personal injury claims, safety matters, labor disputes, builder’s risk claims, environmental issues, and Employer’s Liability claims.  

 

In addition to representing clients in arbitration proceedings, several of our attorneys, including the two co-chairs of the practice team, have significant practices as mediators and arbitrators and serve on multiple American Arbitration Association (AAA) panels and as court appointed mediators.  For example:  

 

Hon. Carol E. Heckman has been serving on the Commercial, Employment and Mediation panels of the AAA for over 15 years where she conducts arbitrations in most metropolitan areas and has a particular concentration in New York City.  She is an active Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators - an elite group of commercial arbitrators.  She is certified as a court-appointed mediator in the Western District of New York and also handles private mediations and arbitrations.  

Amy Habib Rittling serves as a court-appointed mediator for civil cases in the Western District of New York. 

Musa K. Farmand has been certified as a civil circuit mediator by the Supreme Court of Florida. In his role, Musa performs mediations in matters related to personal injury, product liability, wrongful death, commercial and employment litigation, fraud, and more. 

In addition, the firm has more than 55 highly experienced litigators with experience representing clients in arbitrations and mediations.  This team is familiar with the substantive and procedural rules, and the strategies, uniquely applicable to ADR.