Family Mediation Training Course Fall 2024

Presenters

Adam J. Berner, Esq.

Berner Law & Mediation Offices, Hackensack

Jennifer L. Brandt, Esq.

Brandt Law & Mediation, LLC, Watchung

Jeffrey Fiorello, Esq.

Cohn Lifland Pearlman Herrmann & Knopf LLP, Saddle Brook

Christine M. Heer, J.D., L.C.S.W.

Social Work M.A. Program Lecturer, Director
Seton Hall University, South Orange

is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Program Lecturer and Director in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work and Criminal Justice at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. She is also a solo practitioner in Warren, New Jersey, where she concentrates her practice in mediation and collaborative practice in family law, and professional responsibility for mental health professionals.

Admitted to practice law in New Jersey and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Ms. Heer is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in New Jersey and has been a Certified Domestic Violence Specialist, a Certified Special Instructor for the State of New Jersey Police Training Commission, a Certified Social Work Supervisor by the National Association of Social Workers, a Certified Master Forensic Social Worker, and an Approved Mediator on the Roster of Mediators for Economic Issues in Family Matters and the Roster of Parenting Coordinators of the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts. In 2005 she was appointed to the Legal Defense Fund of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) in Washington, D.C. and completed two consecutive terms. Ms. Heer has been a member of numerous professional organizations, including the American, New Jersey State and Somerset County Bar Associations, the National Association of Social Workers New Jersey (NASW-New Jersey) and the New Jersey Association of Domestic Violence Professionals. Having served as Chair of the Ethics Committee of NASW-New Jersey, she has been a member and Past Chair of the Committee for Professional Review and a Trustee of the New Jersey State Bar Association.

A founder and trainer of the Domestic Violence Crisis Intervention Team Program, Ms. Heer has authored several articles, appeared in the media to discuss domestic violence topics and serves as a trainer on domestic violence, ethics for mental health professionals, conflict resolution and diversity in relationships topics. She has been an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work, Institute for Families, and has also taught at the Graduate Schools of Social Work in New Brunswick and Camden and at Essex County College. Ms. Heer has provided Domestic Violence Protocol training for DCF/DYFS staff in central and northern New Jersey as part of the Case Practice Model and has appeared in media specials on domestic violence, including “Domestic Violence: Faces of Fear” with Diane Sawyer. She contributed a chapter for the book Forensic Social Work: Psychosocial and Legal Issues in Diverse Practice Settings (2009) and is the recipient of several awards.

Ms. Heer received her B.S. from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey), her Masters in Social Work from Rutgers University and her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law, where she was a member of the Pro Bono Domestic Violence Clinic and Co-Chair of the GLBT Student Bar Association. Prior to attending law school she practiced as a Clinical Social Worker for more than 20 years, specializing in victims’ rights and related treatments.

Anju Jessani, MBA, APM

Divorce With Dignity Mediation Services, Hoboken

is an Accredited Professional Mediator by the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators (NJAPM) and an Advanced Practitioner Member of the Association for Conflict Resolution. Her firm, Divorce with Dignity Mediation Services, has offices in Hoboken and Clinton, New Jersey. Her practice consists of family/divorce mediation, securities mediation and arbitration, and civil/business mediation.

Prior to establishing her mediation practice in 1997, Ms. Jessani served as Vice President for JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan Bank. She is on the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Court’s roster of Family/Divorce, Foreclosure and Business/Civil Mediators, and serves as a mentor to mediators applying to qualify for the Business/Civil roster. She has been a member of the multi-disciplinary Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, and is Past President of the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators (NJPAM).

The primary author of Parenting Time: A Child’s Right, Ms. Jessani has written several articles on mediation topics which have appeared in the American Journal of Family Law, CPA Journal, the New Jersey Law Journal and other publications. She is an instructor for ICLE and NJAPM’s divorce mediation training programs, editor of the NJAPM publication Mediation News and has received special recognition from the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Board of Trustees and NJAPM.

Ms. Jessani received her B.A. from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and her M.B.A. from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She received her formal training in mediation from the Center for Family and Divorce Mediation in New York, and her practical training in mediation through the Hudson County Court Mediation Program.

Phyllis S. Klein, Esq.

Phyllis Klein Mediation, LLC, Chatham

is a founding Member of Donahue, Hagan, Klein & Weisberg, LLC in Morristown, New Jersey. She limits her practice to family law matters and focuses in alternative dispute resolution, primarily mediation and parent coordination. She has also been involved in several reported decisions.

Admitted to practice in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, Ms. Klein is a Court-Approved Mediator and a member of the Family Law Sections of the New Jersey State, Essex County and Morris County Bar Associations, as well as the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators (NJAPM). She is former Co-Chair of the Executive Committee of the ECBA Family Law Section, a former member of the District VB Ethics Committee and a former member and Chair of the District VC Fee Arbitration Committee.

A member of the Justice Garibaldi American Inn of Court, Ms. Klein is a member and Past President of the Barry I. Croland Family Law American Inn of Court and has lectured for ICLE, the American Trial Lawyers Association and several bar associations and family law American Inns of Court. She is a contributing author to the custody chapter of New Jersey Family Law Practice and was the 2003 recipient of the Essex County Bar Association Family Law Section’s Family Law Achievement Award and several other honors.

Ms. Klein received her B.A.A.S. from the University of Delaware and her J.D. from New YorkLaw School. She was Law Clerk to the Honorable Carmen A. Ferrante, J.S.C.

Robert E. Margulies, Esq.

Schumann Hanlon Margulies LLC, Jersey City

Bruce P. Matez, Esq., APM

Weir Greenblatt Pierce, LLP, Cherry Hill

Dr. Sharon Ryan Montgomery

, Morristown

is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Morristown, New Jersey. Her areas of expertise are in all areas of forensic psychology, child custody evaluations, child sexual abuse, criminal and personal injury, family violence, mediation/arbitration, therapeutic mediation, parenting coordination, therapeutic visitation, child and adolescent psychopathology, and emotional sequelae/complications of juvenile diabetes. She also sees patients in individual, marital and group psychotherapy, and served as a psychologist and Coordinator of the Family Enrichment Program at Morristown Memorial Hospital for several years.

A Board-Certified Forensic Examiner, Dr. Ryan Montgomery is a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Examiners and holds certification in group psychotherapy from the New Jersey Academy of Group Psychotherapy. She has been Clinical Supervisor of Morris County's Family Court Mediation Program, on the Steering Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association's Child and Family Project, and a member and President of the Morris County Psychologist Association. Dr. Ryan Montgomery has also been a member of the New Jersey Psychological Association (NJPA) and the American Psychological Association. She was a member of the Task Force for the American Bar Association, Family Law Section, Standards of Practice on Divorce Mediation, and the Board of the New Jersey Psychological Association, chairing its Interpersonal Relations Committee, and has been a member-at-large on the NJPA Executive Committee. She has served as President of the New Jersey Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC).

A lecturer at national and international child abuse conferences and for ICLE and the Newly-Appointed Judges Orientation Program, Dr. Ryan Montgomery has served as an expert witness in numerous custody disputes in several New Jersey counties. She has also conducted evaluations in criminal matters and has testified in court on numerous occasions.

Dr. Ryan Montgomery holds a doctorate in psychology from Rutgers University.

Dr. Marcy A. Pasternak

Office of Marcy A. Pasternak, PhD, Watchung

is a clinical and forensic psychologist with a practice in Watchung, New Jersey. While her practice serves individuals of all ages in both the clinical and forensic arena, Dr. Pasternak’s special interests include marital and family therapy, divorce therapy, forensic evaluations concerning custody and parenting time, removal, grandparent visitation, risk assessment and personal injury. She often serves as a parenting coordinator and is a certified divorce mediator, conducting both divorce mediation and therapeutic mediation. She conducts Intensive Family Interventions through “Building Family Resilience,” an outgrowth of her practice.

A licensed psychologist in New Jersey, New York and Vermont, Dr. Pasternak has been a member of the American, New Jersey and Somerset Hunterdon Psychological Associations, and has an APA Certificate of Proficiency in the Treatment of Alcohol or Other Psychoactive Substance Use Disorders and an NCC AP Master Addiction Counselor Credential. She has been a member of the New Jersey Psychological Association’s Forensic Committee and is Past President of the New Jersey Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (NJ-AFCC).

Dr. Pasternak has served as a psychological expert in eleven New Jersey counties and as an adjunct staff member at Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center, and has been a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at New Jersey Medical School, UMDNJ. She has given workshops and presentations to the mental health and legal communities.

Dr. Pasternak received her B.A., magna cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Duke University.

Richard H. Steen, Esq.

Richard H. Steen, LLC, Princeton

Amy Wechsler, Esq.

Lawrence Law, Watchung

Certified as a Matrimonial Law Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, practices with Lawrence Law with offices in Watchung and Red Bank, New Jersey. She concentrates her practice in family law, mediation, arbitration, parenting coordination and collaborative divorce, and provides mediation services privately and through court programs.

Accredited as a Divorce and Family Mediator by the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators (NJAPM) and a trained Collaborative Divorce Attorney, Ms. Wechsler serves on the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Family Law Executive Committee (where she has been Chair of a Task Force on Parenting Coordination and the Children’s Rights Subcommittee) and is Past President of the Somerset County Bar Association. She completed the Arbitration Training through the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and is Past President of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts-New Jersey Chapter (AFCC-NJ), an interdisciplinary association of professionals dedicated to improving the lives of children and families through the resolution of family conflict. Ms. Wechsler has been Co-President of the Association for Advancement of Collaborative Practice and a Board Member of the New Jersey Council on Collaborative Practice Groups. She is also Past Chair of the District XIII Attorney Ethics Committee.

Ms. Wechsler is the 2005 recipient of the Professional Lawyer of the Year Award for Somerset County bestowed by the New Jersey Commission on Professionalism. She is a frequent lecturer and author on family law topics for ICLE, NJAPM, AFCC-NJ, the Association of Divorce Financial Planners (ADFP) and other organizations, and her articles have appeared in the New Jersey Family Lawyer.

Ms. Wechsler received her B.S. from the University of Connecticut, her M.S.W. in Clinical Social Work from Rutgers University and her law degree from Rutgers School of Law-Newark.