Jaspan Schlesinger LLP, one of the region’s leading full-service law firms, has established an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Practice Group, which will focus on resolving legal disputes outside the court system.
Managing Partner Steven Schlesinger announced that the ADR group will be chaired by retired Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Anthony J. Falanga (Ret.), who has been with Jaspan Schlesinger since 2012 in the firm’s Matrimonial and Family Law Practice Group.
“Alternative Dispute Resolution provides parties with an impartial – and most significantly, a private – framework in which to handle legal matters,” noted Schlesinger. “In a divorce or a contested estate matter, ADR allows high-profile clients to keep personal details and family finances out of the public record. And in the corporate world, where litigated matters can quickly become costly and time-consuming, ADR significantly mitigates the potential damage to a company’s reputation and profits by keeping sensitive information outside the public eye.”
Alternative Dispute Resolution methods include neutral evaluation, negotiation, mediation, arbitration and private judging, all of which are designed to bring parties to an agreement without protracted legal proceedings. ADR is widely considered to be less expensive, faster and more convenient than litigation.
Jaspan Schlesinger has among its attorneys a number of former judges, court attorney-referees and experienced arbitrators who have decades of experience in resolving contested matters. The ADR group will draw on the experience of these attorneys, including Hon. Jeffrey D. Lebowitz (Ret.), former Justice of the Queens County Supreme Court; Michael P. Ryan, Chair of the firm’s Trusts and Estates practice group and the former Chief Clerk and Court Attorney-Referee of the Nassau County Surrogate’s Court; Sally M. Donahue, former Court Attorney-Referee of the Nassau County Surrogate’s Court, and Arthur D. Felsenfeld, a business litigator with over forty years of experience, including approximately twenty years as an arbitrator and mediator in commercial, employment and securities disputes.
In the matrimonial arena, Jaspan Schlesinger’s ADR service will be the only of its kind on Long Island overseen by a former Supreme Court Justice.
“From my time in the Matrimonial Division of Nassau County Supreme Court, I am deeply familiar with the emotional and financial toll that contested divorce proceedings can exact on all parties,” stated Justice Falanga. “The same holds true with contested estate matters, which can embroil family members in confrontational situations and quickly drain the resources of the estate they are managing.”
“Courts have not been able to keep up with increasing demand, so the New York State judicial system, like many around the nation, is actively encouraging the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution to help relive backlogged calendars and understaffed courtrooms,” noted Michael Ryan. For more than 72 years, Jaspan Schlesinger LLP has been one of Long Island’s leading full-service law firms, providing exceptional legal services in the areas of commercial litigation, banking and financial services, education law, municipal law, real estate, land use and zoning, tax certiorari and condemnation, and estates and trusts. With approximately sixty attorneys, Jaspan Schlesinger is equipped to handle complex matters while delivering individualized advice and counsel to its clients.