Lecturer Bios
Joseph Gioconda
Yale Law School
J.D., Law
1994 – 1997
Activities and Societies: Yale Law Federalist Society (President), Yale Journal on
Regulation (Senior Editor), Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities (Development
Editor), Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy (Visiting Editor), Temporary
Restraining Orders for Battered Women Project, Yale Law Crew Team (Co-Captain and
Co-Founder).
State University of New York at Stony Brook
B.A., Political Science
1991 – 1994
Graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Dean's List (4.0 GPA) for 9 semesters.
Activities and Societies: Instructor and Teaching Assistant for numerous advanced
courses in Political Science and Social Psychology.
Cathedral Preparatory Seminary, New York
General
1986 – 1990
National Forensic League (National Finalist in Debate and Extemp), Brooklyn-Queens
Catholic Forensic League (New York State Finalist in Debate and Extemp).
Activities and Societies: Currently a member of St. Matthew's Society, an alumni
association of Cathedral graduates working in the finance and legal fields
Vivian Berger
Vivian Berger, Esq. is the Nash Professor of Law Emerita at Columbia Law School. She has
conducted hundreds of mediations since the mid-1990s and been designated an Advanced
Practitioner in employment mediation B her specialty B by the ACR. She is a member of the
AAA Panel on Employment Mediation. She has also done arbitrations and independent
workplace investigations and served as special master in a sexual harassment case in federal
court. Professor Berger is on the mediator panels of the US District Courts for the Southern and
Eastern Districts of NYand the NJ state court system, for which she handles employment
disputes. She also mediates for the EEOC and has mediated for the USPS (the AREDRESS@
program) and the NYS Division of Human Rights. She mediates privately as well. Apart from
employment matters, Professor Berger has mediated other civil rights cases and child custody,
PINS, lawyer-client, and civilian-police disputes.
Professor Berger has been a member of the NYS Unified Court System ADR Advisory
Committee and is currently a member of the ADR Committee of the Association of the Bar of
the City of NY, the ABA and NYSBA Dispute Resolution Sections, and the Arbitration and
Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the NY County Lawyers= Ass=n. She is also cochair
of the Legislation Committee of the Labor & Employment Section of the NYSBA and a
member of that Section=s Executive Committee. She publishes and speaks on mediation and
employment-related topics. http://www.vberger-mediator.com
Jonathan Sobel
Partner, Sobel & Feller LLP
Partnership; 1-10 employees; Law Practice industry
April 2009 – Present (2 years 11 months)
Sobel & Feller is a full-service IP counseling and litigation firm. We have nearly 30 years
of combined legal experience resolving IP issues at premier law firms. We also litigate
and help resolve commercial disputes. We offer our clients the best of both worlds --
large firm experience, quality, and service, without the corporate overhead. The result is
exceptional value work at a lower cost.
An efficient firm structure allows us to tailor our legal services to meet clients’ needs,
expectations, and budgets. While we litigate aggressively and are prepared to take cases
through trial, we do not litigate for the sake of litigating.
Sobel & Feller works with our clients to develop creative business solutions to IP issues
and problems. We are mindful of clients’ business needs and goals from the outset and
formulate our strategies and counsel based on those needs and goals, whether in litigation,
as part of a transaction, or in response to other client needs.
Partner, Hogan & Hartson LLP
Partnership; 1001-5000 employees; Law Practice industry
December 2003 – March 2009 (5 years 4 months)
My practice at Hogan & Hartson focused on intellectual property litigation (including
trials), particularly patent litigation. I also helped clients license their patented inventions.
Other significant litigation experience involved trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets,
false advertising, and unfair competition claims.
Associate, Clifford Chance US LLP
Partnership; 1001-5000 employees; Law Practice industry
2000 – 2003 (3 years)
My practice at Clifford Chance involved litigation and trials focused primarily on patents.
I examined witnesses in trials as part of a team that secured a $22 million jury verdict on
behalf of a client in the area of wireless local area network technology, and that defeated
counterclaims of infringement in a separate trial on behalf of that client.
Nancy Kramer
Nancy Kramer is a mediator, arbitrator and facilitator who specializes in workplace, family
(gay and straight), co-op/condominium and securities disputes. She does private mediations;
serves as Special Master in the Appellate Division, First Department; is on the arbitration
panel for FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) and does group facilitations for
academic institutions and others. Nancy is also a mediation panel member for the American
Arbitration Association (AAA); New Jersey Superior Courts; New York City Office of
Administrative Trials and Hearings; New York County Supreme Court, Commercial
Division; United States Postal Service; and United States Transportation Security
Administration.
Before opening her dispute resolution practice, Nancy had a long legal career in the public
sector. She served as Special Counsel to the New York State Trial Lawyers Association;
Bureau Chief in the New York State Attorney General's Office; Executive Director of the
Committee for Public Justice and staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society. A graduate of
Columbia University Law School and Brandeis University, Nancy has taken numerous
courses in mediation and arbitration.
Nancy teaches and speaks about mediation frequently. She has made recent presentations for
the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section; Brooklyn Bar Association;
Cardozo Law School; Council of New York Co-operatives & Condominiums; New York
City Bar Association; New York City Corporation Counsel; New York State Attorney
General's Office; New York State Bar Association; Practicing Law Institute, Touro Law
School and several psychoanalytic institutes. Nancy also writes on mediation topics. See
www.nancykramermediation.com.
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.
Adam Engel
Founder and Attorney
A.E. Engel & Associates, LLC
Law Practice industry
2008 – Present (4 years)
New York practice focused on general commercial litigation and counseling, with an
emphasis on representing individuals, start-ups, and small to medium sized businesses.
Practice areas include intellectual property litigation and counseling, employment
disputes and policies, contract drafting and negotiation, real estate disputes, and
environmental litigation.
Recent Representations:
Represented a software development company plaintiff and its principal in multidefendant
federal and state court litigation involving copyright, trade secrets, breach of
contract and related claims arising out of the theft, copying, and preparation of derivative
works based on clients’ copyrighted software and proprietary business processes; settled
for confidential but substantial sum while partial Motions to Dismiss pending, and on the
eve of depositions of the defendants’ principals.
Represented airline pilot defendant in breach of contract action; successfully moved for
dismissal of all claims at the outset of the litigation.
Represented defendant in connection with an under-performing employee’s claims of age
and disability discrimination; within one month of taking over for predecessor counsel,
helped client navigate process of terminating problem employee and settled claims for
insubstantial sum, with plaintiff agreeing to exculpatory language in the stipulation of
dismissal, which helped mitigate client’s reputational harm.
Represented financial firm in connection with former employee’s breach of his
confidentiality and non-compete agreement; rather than proceed directly to costly and
time-consuming litigation, negotiated full disclosure of all wrongdoing by former
employee and secured additional protection of client’s confidential information moving
forward, while minimizing disruption to client’s operations and client relationships.
Represented school teacher in connection with her negotiated departure from a prominent
New York City private school.
Devika Kewalramani, Esq.
Devika Kewalramani is a partner and co-chair of Moses & Singer's Legal Ethics & Law Firm Practice which advises law firms, lawyers and legal departments on ethical, legal and business aspects of law practice. Devika’s practice focuses on the laws that regulate lawyers and she counsels on a variety of issues relating to legal ethics,
professional responsibility, partnership and fee disputes, risk management and loss prevention. She conducts ethics audits for midsize and boutique law firms and develops risk management compliance manuals for the firms.
A frequent lecturer, panelist and author on legal ethics, Devika speaks to corporate legal departments, law firms, bar associations and other professional organizations around the country on conflicts of interest, engagement letters, attorney advertising via blogs, websites and social media, unauthorized practice of law, lawyer/law firm domain names and law practice management. The editor of the New York State Bar Association’s Journal magazine recognized Devika as an author with one of the best written articles for 2010 with “Up Close and Professional With New York’s Engagement Letter Rules” (September 2010). She is also a faculty member of the Practising Law
Institute and of Lawline.com. Previously, she was general counsel to Moses & Singer. Prior to that, Devika was an associate in Moses & Singer’s Banking and Finance practice where she represented major financial institutions in secured and unsecured financings.
Charles J. Moxley, Jr.
Charles J. Moxley, Jr. is an experienced arbitrator, mediator and litigator. Of Counsel to Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP in New York City, he has been an AAA arbitrator for over 30 years. He is a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators and of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and an Adjunct Professor at Fordham Law School, teaching arbitration and international law. Mr. Moxley is also the Distinguished ADR Practitioner in Residence at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
After more than 30 years as a litigator handling large commercial, securities, insurance, and other cases in federal and state courts throughout the United States, Mr. Moxley now spends most of his time as an arbitrator and mediator, mostly in large and complex cases and international cases – and has served as an arbitrator or mediator in over 250 cases. Mr. Moxley has published widely in the arbitration area and regularly lectures at academic and professional functions on the subject. He is Chair Elect of the Dispute Resolution Section of the New York State Bar Association, Co-Chair of the Section’s Legislation Committee, and a member of the New York
City Bar's Arbitration Committee.
Mr. Moxley started his career as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell, following his graduation from Columbia Law School and clerkship with United States District Judge Thomas F. Croake in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Barbara Swartz
Barbara Swartz is a Distinguished Professor of Law who has more than twenty-five years'
experience as a mediator and conflict resolution skills trainer. She works in both the private and
public sectors. She mediates in a variety of areas including employment, commercial, medical
malpractice, personal injury, health care issues, community and a variety of family matters
including divorces, gay and lesbian family issues, wills and estates, elder care, end of life
decision-making and intra-family personal conflicts. One of her main areas of expertise is
managing workplace conflict. She has mediated hundreds of disputes in discharge and
promotion; cultural clashes; gender, racial, religious and political discrimination and harassment;
special accommodations; personality conflicts and more - mainly for large corporations, the
United Nations and government agencies. She has conducted mediation trainings for lawyers,
law students, executives, employees, environmentalists, mediators, psychologists, health care
workers, clergy and social workers. She also has experience creating and running mediation and
communication skills training workshops and in working with individuals and units to help
create a more positive workplace environment. She enjoys designing training programs that meet
the specific needs of a company or organization. She practices both in the United States and
internationally.
She is a graduate of New York University School of Law, has a master’s degree in public health
from Columbia University, a master’s degree in political science, and a B.A. from Temple
University. She is the senior faculty member at Touro Law School.
I view conflict as an opportunity for people to work together to create a mutually satisfying
outcome and a more positive relationship
