Laura A. Kaster

In 2018, Ms. Kaster received the Richard K. Jeydel Award for ADR Excellence from the Justice Marie L. Garibaldi ADR Inn of Court, the first all ADR Inn in the Country.  In 2014, Ms. Kaster was named the James B. Boskey 'ADR Practitioner of the Year' by the NJSBA DR Section. Ms. Kaster has been selected for the Master Mediator Panel of the American Arbitration Association and the ICDR panel and she is a mediator for the Global Panel of CEDR. In 2020-2021 Ms. Kaster was the Chair of the NYSBA Dispute Resolution Section 2020-21. She has mediated  cases and arbitrated over 500 commercial cases, including cases with claims of 100s of millions of dollars relating to complex data contracts and outsourcing, patent licensing, trademarks, telecommunications, biotech, and complex outsourcing and technology and software development matters.

Ms. Kaster is a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.  She is on the Panel of Distinguished Neutrals for CPR and a  CEDR Accredited and IMI Certified Mediator. She is on the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Tech List. She has been recognized in Who's Who Legal, Mediation. 

As chief litigation counsel for AT&T Corporation for almost 10 years before devoting herself primarily to dispute resolution, Ms. Kaster supervised litigation, arbitration, mediation and or settlement of all AT&T patent cases, trademark and trade secret cases, other intellectual property matters involving telecommunications, software, internet, audio, and related technology, as well as employment litigation, class actions, post-closing disputes relating to AT&T's purchase and sale of significant businesses, such as its sale of satellite and submarine businesses, and litigation that ultimately allowed AT&T to sell the Salt Lake Tribune. 

Prior to her work at AT&T, as a partner at Jenner & Block, Ms. Kaster handled a wide variety of complex disputes and developed special expertise in disputes involving intellectual property, technology,securities, environmental issues, taxes, fee litigations and sanctions, attorneys fees, closely held companies and estates.

Ms. Kaster holds a BA from Tufts University (Political Science); and a JD, magna cum laude from Boston University, where she was Notes Editor for the Law Review and recipient of the Melville M. Bigelow Award  "for the greatest promise as a teacher and scholar in the law". Following law school, she was a law clerk to then Chief Judge Frank M. Coffin of the Federal Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

SELECTIVE ADR TRAININGS:

• Accelerated Route to Fellowship CIArb 2020
• Online Mediation Training 2020
• Columbia/ CIArb International Law Certificate Program 2015
• CCA Annual Meeting 2012-2020
• CEDR Advanced Mediator Skills Training 2011
• AAA Maximizing Efficiency & Economy in Arbitration 2011
• ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Spring Conference 2010-2019
• AAA/ICDR Neutrals Conference 2011, 2019
• Pepperdine University Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Vermont 2010
• ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Spring Conference 2010
• Center for Mediation in Law, Self-Reflection in Action 2011, 2010 and 2009
• CPR Advanced Mediation Training 2009
• FINRA Chairperson training 2009
• AAA Arbitration Awards: Safeguarding, Deciding & Writing Awards 2009
• AAA Chairing an Arbitration Panel: Managing Procedures, Process & Dynamics 2009
• ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Spring Conference 2009
• Alternative Dispute Resolution Training AAA Arbitration
• Fundamentals and Best for New Arbitrators, 2008
• New York State Judicial Institute, Advanced Training for Mediators
• Commercial Division Mediators 2008
• Center for Mediation In Law, Self-Reflection in Action for Conflict Professionals 2008
• CPR Annual Meeting 2008
• Center For Mediation In Law Advanced Training Series 2007
• CPR, Intensive Mediation Training, 2007
• NASD, Arbitration Basic Training, Expungement, Revised
• Code of Arbitration Procedures, 2007
• ABA Dispute Resolution Section, Third Annual Arbitration Training, 2007
• NJICLE, Advanced Mediation Clinic, 2007
• NJICLE, Arbitration Training Course, 2007
• The Center for Mediation in Law, Mediation Intensive Training, 2006

Ms. Kaster  was the 2020-21  Chair of the New York State Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section. She is Past Chair of the Dispute Resolution Section of NJSBA 2011-13 and past President of the Justice Marie L. Garibaldi Inn of Court 2015 -2017 devoted exclusively to alternative dispute resolution. She is a fellow in the College of Commercial Arbitrators and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She was appointed to the New Jersey Supreme Court's Committee on Complementary Dispute Resolution 2013-2023 and to the New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Mediator Standards.  She is on the Tech List for the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center List of Leading Technology Neutrals.  She is an editor of the College of Commercial Arbitrators Guide to Best Practices in Commercial Arbitration (4th Ed. 2016).  “Privacy and Confidentiality,” in Singer (Ed) Arbitrating Commercial Disputes in the United Stated (PLI 2018);Co-author, “Arbitrating Technology Cases: Considerations for Businesspeople and Advocates”, in Samaras (Ed) ADR Advocacy, Strategies, and Practices for Intellectual Property and Technology Cases(ABA 2017)

She is co-editor in chief of NY Dispute Resolution Lawyer a publication of the New York State Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section, and a co-chair of Working Group 2 of the Mixed Modes Task Force for CCA/IMI/Pepperdine, and a member of the Diversity Task Force of CPR.

Ms. Kaster is on the Distinguished Neutrals Panel of CPR and on its IP Panel;  a member of the AAA Commercial Panel and a Master Mediator for the AAA; on the CEDR International Mediation Panel, The Global Mediation Exchange Center; on the FINRA panel and she mediates for the New Jersey and New York Courts.

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