Lecturer Bios
Tracee Davis
Tracee E. Davis is a senior associate in the commercial litigation group at Zeichner
Ellman & Krause LLP. At ZEK, Ms. Davis handles both federal and state court cases
involving matters ranging in complexity: from commercial business disputes to consumer
and lender’s liability class actions to disputes involving complex structured refinancing
transactions.
She is a graduate of Montclair State College and of American University, Washington
College of Law, where she earned her law degree.
Prior to joining Zeichner Ellman & Krause LLP, Ms. Davis served as the Principal Court
Attorney to Justice Charles E. Ramos of the New York State Supreme Court,
Commercial Division in Manhattan. During her five years with Justice Ramos, Ms. Davis
assisted in managing the resolution of more than 400 complex commercial cases. She
researched and wrote court opinions, many of which were published, and negotiated
case settlements on panoply of business and commercial issues. Some of the cases
she handled included consumer fraud class actions, unfair competition and employment
contract disputes, and conflicts arising from private investment/financial arrangements.
She also served an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York Law School. Ms. Davis
lectured at Education Unlimited for several years to real estate salespersons on the laws
regulating commercial and residential real estate transactions.
Ms. Davis is currently a Delegate to the New York State Bar Association’s House of
Delegates, the immediate past Secretary of the New York State Bar Association’s
Commercial and Federal Litigation Section and since 2001 has been a member of the
Section’s Executive Committee. She also served as Co-Chair of the Section’s State
Court Counsel Committee.
Ms. Davis is also a member of the Association of the City Bar of the City of New York
and member of the Association’s State Court of Superior Jurisdiction Committee.
In 2004, she was also appointed Director of the Independent Judicial Screening Panel,
New York County Democratic Party (Civil Court 2004) to oversee the merit-based
screening and selection process for reviewing applications and identifying qualified
candidates.
Ms. Davis has chaired or served as a faculty member of a number of programs for the
NYSBA, the Association of the City Bar, the New York County Lawyers’ Association, and
the Anti-Bias Committee of the New York State Supreme Court, New York County.
Jay G. Safer, Esq.
Jay G. Safer is a partner at the law firm of Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch LLP in New York City. Jay is both a litigator and an arbitrator,
Jay has for many years handled complex litigation in the United States and abroad. Jay represents clients in matters concerning contracts, antitrust, securities, RICO, qui tam, FCPA, international litigation and arbitration, including application of the New York Convention and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitration awards, banking, financial institutions, corporate governance, technology, privacy, insurance, construction, real estate, labor and employment, product liability, health care, professional ethics, financial, constitutional, and regulatory issues, mediation, class actions, defamation, and media. Jay also counsels clients on commercial matters including, protection and preventative measures and pre-litigation analysis. He has represented clients in international litigation, including domestic and foreign clients in courts outside the United States and foreign clients in the U.S. courts.
Jay has extensive ADR experience both as an arbitrator and as an advocate. He has engaged in numerous arbitrations and mediations and in teaching and speaking at ADR programs. As an arbitrator, he has served in numerous arbitrations involving complex commercial and business matters in various industry areas both as a single arbitrator and as Chair and member of a Tribunal panel. These have included arbitrations administered by various ADR organizations, ad hoc arbitration, and under various rules and laws. He is on the Roster of Neutrals of the AAA for U.S. arbitrations and on the Roster of the AAA’s ICDR for international arbitrations. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrations (CIArb) and teaches and trains international arbitrators. As an advocate, Jay has represented clients from the United States and around the world in arbitrations.
His ADR experience has involved a wide range of U.S. and international arbitrations, mediations, and enforcements of arbitration awards including disputes involving contracts, mergers and acquisitions, sales of businesses, investments, energy, healthcare, sales of equipment from U.S. companies to governmental entities abroad, telecommunications, corporate governance, dispute among shareholders, real estate, construction claims, oil and gas leases, insurance, labor and employment, fraud, and entertainment agreements. Jay is both a speaker and teacher on U.S. and international arbitration.
Jay is a Lecturer at Law and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School and Fordham Law Schools teaching foreign lawyers and LLM candidates American litigation practice and the management of U.S. Litigation, and the role of arbitration and mediation in U.S. proceedings. Jay was appointed to the Advisory Group to the New York State Federal Judicial Council consisting of federal and state judges appointed by the Chief Judge of the State of New York and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Jay was appointed by the Chief Judge of the State of New York to the Commercial Division Advisory Council that advises the Chief Judge and the Judiciary on matters involving the Commercial Division of the State of New York. He was also appointed by the New York State Chief Administrative Judge to serve on the New York State Advisory Committee on Civil Practice.
Jay has served on panels, bench-bar forums, and is a member of committees with judges and attorneys discussing and speaking on a wide range of civil litigation and dispute resolution issues, litigation and arbitration skills, and U.S. and international arbitration and international litigation practice. He has for many years presented numerous programs and seminars in the U. S. and around the world on U.S.and international litigation and arbitration to U.S. and foreign judges and lawyers. He frequently presents webinars and CLE programs to national audiences.
Jay is involved in leadership positions in numerous bar associations, including as past chair and present member of many bar association sections, executive committees, and committees.
Jay has made appearances on television and authored numerous articles and publications.
Contact Information:
Jay G. Safer
Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch LLP
500 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 1010
Direct tel: 212-556-0379
JSafer@wmd-law.com
Robert Kelner, Esq.
Mr. Kelner graduated from Columbia University School of Law, and is a member of the
Bar of the State of New York. He is admitted to the United States District Court,
Southern and Eastern Districts.
Currently, Mr. Kelner is a member of the law firm Kelner
& Kelner, Esqs., specializing in the practice of personal injury, medical malpractice and
products liability law. He has obtained many verdicts in excess of $10,000,000, including
one verdict of approximately $23,000,000 (Martin v. Dellwood) and one verdict in excess
of $36,000,000 (Driscoll v. New York City Transit Authority).
Mr. Kelner has lectured
before virtually all major bar associations in Continuing Legal Education Programs,
including, but not limited to, the New York State Bar Association, New York State Trial
Lawyers Association, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the New York
County Lawyers’ Association, where he is Co-chair of the annual Civil Trial Practice
Institute.
In addition, he lectured at Princeton University and Columbia University School
of Law. Mr. Kelner is the author of numerous publications and serves as co-columnist of
the New York Law Journal’s monthly column on Trial Practice.
Robert J. Conway
Mr. Conway received a B.A. degree from Fordham University and a J.D. degree from
Albany Law School Union University. He is currently a partner in Marshall Conway &
Wright, PC, one of the leading insurance defense firms in New York and New Jersey. He
is admitted to the Bar in New York State, as well as admitted to practice in the U.S.
District Court, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Mr. Conway is a member of
the American Bar Association, Tort and Insurance Practice Section; Defense Research
Institute; New York State Bar Association, Insurance Negligence and Compensation
Section; New York County Lawyers’ Association; Nassau County Bar Association;
American Arbitration Association; and Defense Association of New York (DANY).
Lewis Tesser, Esq.
Lewis Tesser is a senior partner in the New York law firm of Tesser, Ryan & Rochman, LLP, concentrating his practice in litigation and mediation, representing licensed professionals and professional practices, administrative law and commercial law. Lew Tesser is Vice-President of the New York County Lawyers’ Association and Director of its Ethics Institute.
Prior to private practice, Mr. Tesser was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York. In that capacity, he represented various agencies of the United States government in litigation in the United States District Court and United States Court of Appeals. Mr. Tesser also served as a Judge Advocate in the United States Army where he prosecuted and defended criminal cases and was the chief legal advisor to the Commanding General of the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He also has served as an Arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, New York City Civil Court, a Judge for the Environmental Control Board of the City of New York and a lecturer for various Bar Associations and New York area law schools.
Mr. Tesser, who was admitted to practice in 1971, is a 1970 Honors graduate from the National Law Center, George Washington University, a Masters graduate from the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania (l974) and a graduate of the Harvard Law School Program of Instruction for Lawyers. He is a past President of Congregation Sons of Israel, Nyack, NY.
Hon. Barbara Jaffe
Justice Barbara Jaffe received her BA, cum laude, from Syracuse University, as well as an MA in Italian Renaissance Art on a graduate fellowship in Florence, Italy. After six years in the wholesale antiques business, she attended Brooklyn Law School and obtained her JD. Justice Jaffe then represented indigent criminal defendants on appeal for The Legal Aid Society, successively served as principal court attorney to two Supreme Court justices in the Criminal Term, was elected to the New York City Civil Court, sat in that court and in the New York City Civil Court, and was appointed to the New York State Supreme Court, Civil Term, where she presides in an Individual Assignment Part and is specially assigned to try asbestos cases.
Justice Jaffe serves on the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association’s Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Section. She is a Founding Faculty member of New York County Lawyers Association’s (NYCLA) Art Litigation and Dispute Resolution Institute, and is a member of that association’s Pro Bono Committee and Supreme Court Committee, and has served on its Committee on Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgendered Issues. She co-chaired NYCLA’s Civil Court Practice Section and has lectured at numerous continuing legal education programs there and elsewhere, including the New York City Bar Association, which she represented as a delegate to the State Bar’s House of Delegates. She also served on the City Bar’s Committee on Nominations, Committee on Civil Rights, Art Law Committee, Special Committee on Capital Punishment, Committee on Civil Court, Committee on Criminal Law, and Special Committee on Public Service and Education, and chaired a joint City Bar/NYCLA committee that produced, in six languages, the “New York State Criminal Justice Handbook.”
David Jaroslawicz
David Jaroslawicz, the principal partner of Jaroslawicz & Jaros, is a member of the New
York, Florida and California bar. He has been in practice for over 34 years and has
secured tens of millions of dollars on behalf of his clients during this time. Mr.
Jaroslawicz has handled both trials and appeals and has argued before the United
States Supreme Court, the New York State Court of Appeals, the United States Court of
Appeals for the Second, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit, as well as the Florida Supreme Court.
Mr. Jaroslawicz has represented countless clients involved in commercial litigation;
contract disputes; real estate litigation; sexual discrimination and harassment, sexual
abuse by priests, medical malpractice; product liability cases such as defective medical
products, pharmaceuticals, bicycle or motorcycle helmets, industrial machinery, tires,
hospital equipment, and defective automobiles, among others. His contributions to the
practice of law have helped shape New York and New Jersey common law. In fact, Mr.
Jaroslawicz was among the legal pioneers who developed the “concerted action” theory
that was utilized against drug manufacturer Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals, who had
manufactured and sold DES, a drug that caused cancer in children decades after their
mothers had ingested the drugs while pregnant. (link to Eli Lilly case and other notable
cases). In addition to his work in the personal injury field, Mr. Jaroslawicz has also
handled several class-action consumer fraud lawsuits as well as lawsuits on behalf of
stock holders who have suffered severe financial losses as a result of securities fraud
during the dot-com downfall. Due to his expertise, Mr. Jaroslawicz had been invited to
lecture on numerous occasions on behalf of lawyer groups such as the New York Trial
Lawyers Association.
Clifford Aaron
Clifford Aaron has been a litigator in New York State for over 25 years. He began his
career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Bronx County District Attorney’s office,
where he tried over 30 felony cases to verdict. He is currently a partner in the downtown
personal injury firm of London Fischer LLP, where he specializes in insurance defense
litigation, general liability, vicarious liability, and automotive products liability,
catastrophic injury, and complex commercial litigation. His clients include some of the
largest automotive manufacturers in the world, and he has tried numerous personal
injury lawsuits to verdict both in state and federal court throughout New York State. He
has been an adjunct professor of law at New York Law School, and is the former
treasurer of the Products Liability Subcommittee of the Tort Division of the New York
County Lawyers’ Association. He is a member, NYS and American Bar Associations,
Defense Research Institute and NYCLA. Mr. Aaron is admitted to the bar in New York,
U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of New York and
Tennessee. He received his B.A. degree from Franklin & marshall College and J.D.
degree from Villanova University.
Hon. Richard F. Braun
Richard Braun is a justice for the New York County Supreme Court, Civil Term in the 1st Judicial District of New York. He was elected to this position in 2004, after serving as an acting justice from 1997. His current term expires in 2017.
Hon. Saliann Scarpulla
Justice, Supreme Court, New York County, Elected, 2013 to 2026
Acting Justice, Supreme Court, New York County, Appointed by Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau, 2009 to 2012
Judge, Civil Court of the City of New York, New York County, Elected, 2002 to 2011; Re-elected, 2012 to 2012
Joshua D. Kelner, Esq.
Joshua D. Kelner graduated cum laude from Williams College in 2001 and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2004. While in law school, he was Articles Editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and a finalist in the Ames Moot Court Competition. In college, he was President of the Williams College debate team.
He has been associated with Kelner & Kelner since 2005, during which time he has concentrated his practice on the trial preparation of complex personal injury cases and on appellate advocacy. He has conducted depositions, second seated trials, and argued numerous motions before the courts. He has also successfully briefed and argued numerous appeals. He was previously associated with the law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, LLP, during which time he focused on federal litigation and white collar criminal defense.
He is the author of The Anatomy of an Image: Unpacking the Case for Tort Reform, which was published in the University of Dayton Law Review in 2006. He is a member of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and the New York State Bar Association.
