LAURA A KASTER

Laura A. Kaster brings to her work as a neutral over 35 years of experience with arbitration, mediation and settlement negotiation in a wide variety of complex commercial disputes. In 2018, she received the Richard K. Jeydel Award for ADR Excellence and Civility from the first ADR Inn of Court in the Country, the Garibaldi Inn. In 2014, she received the Boskey Award from the New Jersey State Bar Association. It recognizes the ADR Practitioner of the Year who has contributed to the public, the bar, and the profession.

ARBITRATION

Ms. Kaster Is a Fellow of the of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the College of Commercial Arbitrators; she is on the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center Tech List – the list of the World’s Leading Technology Neutrals. She has been selected as a member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals. Ms. Kaster has served as Chair of panels dealing with complex patent licensing, telecom, complex business disputes; and one of the largest multi-party data processing development contracts ever undertaken. She has chaired numerous panels dealing with securities related disputes. She has served as sole arbitrator or wing arbitrator in technology, intellectual property, securities, employment, licensing, and business disputes of all kinds.  She serves as an arbitrator for:

• the American Arbitration Association
• CPR Panel of Distinguished Neutrals
• CPR Technology/IP Panel
• Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center
• FINRA

MEDIATION

Ms. Kaster is a CEDR accredited mediator and has been certified as a mediator by the International Mediation Institute (IMI). She has been recognized by Who’s Who Legal, Mediation 2015-2022. She has mediated medical device licensing and development disputes, insurance, employment, drug development and patent licensing issues, sales of professional businesses, partnership and family business disputes, including a multinational trademark dispute that had generated multiple suits over many years. She has served as a mediator for:

• American Arbitration Association – Panel of Master Mediators
• International Center for Dispute Resolution
• CEDR (the leading independent commercial ADR provider in Europe) Global Mediator Panel
• Roster of Mediators for Civil, General Equity and Probate cases for the New Jersey state court system
• Roster of Mediators for the Commercial Division Alternative Dispute Resolution Program for the Supreme Court of New York
• Roster of Mediators for the New Jersey Bankruptcy Court

SPEAKING / TEACHING

Ms Kaster was one of the creators of the intensive training for the panel of Bankruptcy Mediators sponsored by the NJ Bankruptcy Court.  She has spoken at the College of Commercial Arbitrators Annual Meeting , AAA/ICDR Annual Meetings, ABA Dispute Resolution Section annual meetings 2010- 2018, the NJSBA Annual Meetings , ADR Day  PLI, NJAPM, and NYSBA Dispute Resolution Section Annual Meeting.Ms. Kaster is an adjunct professor of Dispute Resolution Processes at Seton Hall Law School.  She has also created Webinars for the AAA, CPR, NJICLE and NJAPM.

EXPERIENCE – IN – HOUSE

As chief litigation counsel for AT&T Corporation 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, class actions, post-closing disputes relating to AT&T’s purchase and sale businesses, including its satellite and submarine businesses.

She was responsible for matters, including disputes involving hundreds of millions of dollars, involving complex supplier, outsourcing, and major customer disputes, international arbitrations, and the resolution of AT&T’s claims against 50 insurance carriers arising out of the damage to the World Trade Center on 9/11. She has handled matters under the AAA rules, CPR rules,ICDR, ICC and other international proceedings.

She served as AT&T’s lead counsel on several seminal cases, including, AT&T v. Microsoft, a patent case which was settled at trial with a novel carve out for an appeal, and AOL v. AT&T, which she briefed and successfully argued before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that “You’ve Got Mail” was generic for indicating the receipt of email.

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, environmental issues, taxes, fee litigations and sanctions, attorneys fees, closely held companies and estates.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION TRAINING AND AFFILIATION

Ms. Kaster was Chair of the Dispute Resolution Sections of the the NYSBA 2020-2021 and the NJSBA 2011-13 and President of the Justice Marie L Garibaldi Inn of Court 2015-2017, devoted exclusively to alternative dispute resolution 2015-2017. In 2014, she was a co-developer and co-trainer for the NJ Bankruptcy Court mediation panel. She is Co-Editor in Chief of NY Dispute Resolution Lawyer for the New York State Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section; and a member of the Diversity Task Force of CPR, and the ADR Inclusion Network.

Her dispute resolution trainings include:

• CIArb Accelerated Route to Fellowship 2020
• The CIArb/Columbia University Certificate Program in International Arbitration 2015
• College of Commercial Arbitrators Annual Meeting 2012 – 2021
• 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, 2016, 2019
• Pepperdine University Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Vermont 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 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

She is admitted to the Bars of Massachusetts (inactive), Illinois(inactive), New Jersey, New York, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, the United States Supreme Court, The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and for the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits.

In January 2013, Laura was named as a Founding Member and Executive Committee member of the New Jersey Chapter, National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals.

 

EDUCATION

Ms. Kaster holds a BA from Tufts University (Political Science); and a JD, magna cum laude from Boston University Law School, 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.