9/11 SPECIAL MASTER, KENNETH FEINBERG, TO SPEAK AT NEW JERSEY MEDIATORS’ CONFERENCE ON NOVEMBER 3

Trenton, NJ (October 29, 2007). Kenneth Feinberg, Special Master of the 9/11 Victims’ Compensation Fund, will be keynote speaker at the annual conference of the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators (NJAPM). Other speakers include Daniel Rainey and Julia Morelli, practicing mediators who specialize in diversity. The conference will be Saturday, November 3, 2007 between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM at the Doubletree Hotel, 200 Atrium Drive, Somerset. Registration is open to the public, and the conference should be of particular interest to anyone dealing with conflict resolution in their profession or in service to their community.

NJAPM President, Anthony P. Limitone, Jr. will open the conference with his summary of the state of mediation in New Jersey, including the New Jersey Superior Court’s recent decision to reduce the amount of free time mediators are required to provide on each case referred by the Court. He will also explain how the conference’s theme of “Crisis, Culture and Competence in Mediation” is relevant to professional mediators and their clients, as they deal with the impact of globalization and change in their own practices and lives.

Kenneth Feinberg’s presentation is entitled “Client Anger—Crisis Management.” Mr. Feinberg was appointed Special Master of the U.S. Government's 9/11 Victims’ Compensation Fund. As the sole person in charge of dispensing the fund, his job was to attach a price tag to suffering, to injury, and a specific amount to each of 2,976 lives lost, whose families had opted to be compensated by the fund, instead of litigating in court. In so doing, he had to meet with families still in shock and whose emotions were raw with anger and sorrow. During this process, he was able to change the mind of some of his harshest critics. Feinberg worked for 33 months entirely pro bono. He also has settled class action lawsuits involving Agent Orange and asbestos, and was also one of two arbitrators selected to determine the allocation of legal fees in the Holocaust slave labor litigation.

Featured speakers, Julia Morelli and Dan Rainey will discuss “Culture & Mediation.” Ms. Morelli is a Virginia based mediator. Her experience includes work in Europe and Asia. Mr. Rainey is the Director of the Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution Services for the National Mediation Board, and is the agency's Ombudsman.

After a networking lunch, there will also be two sessions of afternoon workshops. These professional workshops are designed to educate and update those who practice mediation, those who are considering entering this growing field, and those working with professional mediators to solve disputes. Presenters include judges, attorneys, accountants, mental health professionals, human resource managers, and others with mediation expertise.

The first session’s workshops are:
• Civil Mediation Workshop - “Mediating Chancery Division Disputes” with Hon. Thomas Olivieri, Joan Geiger, & Anthony P. Limitone
• Family Economic Mediation – A View from the Bench with Hon. Karen Cassidy, Hon. Julie M. Marino, & Risa Kleiner.
• Marketing 101 – A Primer for New Mediators with Anju D. Jessani & Patrick Westerkamp

The second session’s workshops are:
• Employment Mediation with Erin Gleason Alvarez (AIG), Christopher Kwok (EEOC), Pamela H. Zuczek (USPS) & Pamela Poff
• Collaborative Law: Is it Good for Divorce Mediators? with Carl Cangelosi, Suzanne Jorgensen, Kenneth Neumann & Linda Piff

Advance registration for the conference and workshops is $155 for members, $175 for non-members and $115 for non-member students, government employees and special circumstances. The registration fee includes breakfast, lunch and conference materials. At the door registration is $20 extra. For more information and to register, please phone Monique Kramer at 800-981-4800 or email her at inform@njapm.org.

The New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators is a statewide, non-profit professional organization dedicated to fostering excellence in the field of mediation; promoting mediation as the preferred method of dispute resolution, encouraging and providing mediation education to the public, the government and the professions, training and accrediting professional mediators, and protecting the public through standards of conduct for mediators NJAPM distributes to the public, lists of Accredited Professional Mediators. The Association can be reached at 1-800-981-4800, and their website is located at www.njapm.org.

For more information contact:
Anju D. Jessani, MBA, APM
Phone (201) 217-1090; Email: ajessani@dwdmediation.org