Laura Kaster

Ms. Kaster, an NJSBA Boskey Award ADR Practitioner of the Year, is a full-time arbitrator and mediator for the AAA, CPR, NAM, FINRA, CEDR, GXMC, and the NJ and NY courts. She is currently Chair of the NYSBA Dispute Resolution Section. She is listed as a leading technology neutral by the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center Tech List

Experience

Ms. Kaster, awarded the 2018 Richard K. Jeydel Award for ADR Excellence and the recipient of the NJSBA Boskey Award ADR Practitioner of the Year 2014, is a full-time arbitrator and mediator for the AAA, CPR, NAM, FINRA, and the NJ and NY courts. Ms. Kaster has an extensive background in complex commercial disputes including technology, licensing, patent and IP. She is a Master Mediator for the AAA and on the CEDR Global Mediator Panel, She is CEDR accredited and IMI Certified. SPEAKING / TEACHING--Ms. Kaster teaches Dispute Resolution Processes at Seton Hall Law School as an Adjunct Professor. Ms Kaster has presented at the ABA Dispute Resolution Section annual meetings 2010-2017, the College of Commercial Arbitrators, the AAA ICDR annual meetings and webinars, NJSBA Annual Meetings, NJSBA ADR Day, PLI, NJAPM, NYSBA Dispute Resolution Section, and the Justice Marie L Garibaldi ADR Inn of Court.

Work History

EXPERIENCE - IN - HOUSE -- As chief litigation counsel for AT&T Corporation for almost 10 years before devoting herself 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 of significant businesses, such as its sale of satellite and submarine businesses, and for litigation that ultimately allowed AT&T to sell the Salt Lake Tribune. She was responsible for matters, including disputes involving multimillions of dollars, involving complex supplier, outsourcing, and major customer disputes and international arbitrations. Several of these matters involved multiple parties, including 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, 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. Ms. Kaster handled and resolved class actions and class action appeals in employment and ERISA related disputes and was involved in establishing AT&T’s consumer arbitration program and its retention and email policies. She had wide exposure to e-discovery. LAW FIRM EXPERIENCE -- 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, telecommunications, complex outsourcing disputes and environmental issues, fee litigation and sanctions.

Cases

Ms. Kaster has served as chair and wing arbitrator in disputes involving telecommunications, IP, software, medical products and drug licensing, complex contractual and outsourcing and partnership disputes. Ms. Kaster has mediated over 250 cases including matters involving 100s of millions of dollars and a long history of conflict, licensing, sales of businesses and practices, partnership and ownership disputes and family business and trust disputes, insurance disputes, attorney’s fee and business interruption disputes.

Training

CEDR Certified and IMI accredited mediator, training from Pepperdine, CPR, AAA, ABA and CCA: Her dispute resolution trainings include: CiArb/Columbia Certification in International Arbitration, CEDR Advanced Mediator Skills Training , AAA Maximizing Efficiency & Economy in Arbitration 2011 ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Spring Conference 2010-2013, AAA/ICDR Neutrals Conference 2011 Pepperdine University Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution Vermont, Center for Mediation in Law Intensive Training and follow up trainings

License(s)

Member of the Bar of NY, NJ, IL(inactive) and MA(inactive)

Education

Tufts University BA Boston University School of Law, Magna cum Laude

Publications

Co-edition of the CCA Best Practices in Commercial Arbitration 4th Edition (2017) Author, chapter on Confidentiality in Arbitrating Commercial Disputes in the United States, (David Singer, PLI 2d Ed 2020) Co-author, chapter in ADR Advocacy, Strategies, and Practices for Intellectual Property and Technology Cases, Second Edition (Harrie Samaras, Ed. 2017) The Lack of Diversity in ADR—and the Current Beneath, Laura A. Kaster, Theodore K. Cheng (The Bencher—March/April 2017) ,br/> The Revised Uniform Arbitration Act at 15 by Laura A. Kaster (ABA Dispute Resolution Magazine Winter 2016) Will There Be a Vast Worldwide Expansion of Mediation for International Disputes? (Alternatives September 2015) Why Bringing Diversity to ADR is a Necessity by David H. Burt and Laura A. Kaster, reprinted by permission of ACC (ACC Docket Oct. 2013)

Confidentiality in US Arbitration, NY Dispute Resolution Lawyer (Spring 2012)

Confidentiality During and After Proceedings, Ch. 6, Arbitration of International Intellectual Property Disputes (T.D. Halket, Ed., Juris 2012)

The Boundaries of Arbitral Power – A Doctrine Revisited, Laura A. Kaster and Judith Archer, NY Dispute Resolution Lawyer (NYSBA 2011)

Cognitive Barriers to Valuing Your Case for Settlement or Mediation: Improving Your Risk Assessment, New Jersey Lawyer Magazine (April 2011)

Did You Agree to Arbitrate?, NY Dispute Resolution Lawyer (NYSBA 2009)

Getting to Federal Court Under the Federal Arbitration Act: Vaden v. Discover Bank, 56 The Federal Lawyer (May 2009)

Unconscionability – Should we Revisit This Backdoor Challenge to Arbitration, NY Dispute Resolution Lawyer-(NYSBA 2008)

Awards

Melville R. Bigelow Award for the greatest promise as a teacher and scholar in the law New Jersey State Bar Association Boskey Award for ADR Practitioner of the Year (2014)

Panels

CPR IP/Technology, AAA, , FINRA, NJ Courts, NY Commercial Division, Tech List Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center

Associations

College of Commercial Arbitrators, IMI, ABA Dispute Resolution Section ,Ms. Kaster is a past Chair of the Dispute Resolution Section of NJSBA 2011-13 and a master and past President 2015-2017 for the Judge Marie Garibaldi Inn of Court, the first Inn of Court devoted entirely to ADR in the US. She is a member of the American Bar Association (Dispute Resolution Section and its Women in Dispute Resolution Committee); co-editor in chief of NY Dispute Resolution Lawyer for the New York State Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section; the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights (Board); and the Diversity Task Force of CPR and a member of the executive committee of the NJ branch of NADN.