2024 Labor and Employment Law Forum

Presenters

Hon. Peter F. Bariso, Jr., A.J.S.C.(Ret.)

Chasan Lamparello Mallon & Cappuzzo, PC

Hon. Patricia K. Costello, A.J.S.C.(Ret.)

Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC

Hon. Ronald J. Hedges (Ret.)

Former USMJ
Principal, Ronald J. Hedges LLC

is Senior Counsel for Dentons in New York City and a member of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice Group. He has extensive experience in e-discovery and the management of complex civil litigation matters, and has served as a special master, arbitrator and mediator. He also consults on the management and discovery of electronically stored information (ESI).

Admitted to practice in New Jersey, New York, Texas and the District of Columbia, and before several federal courts, Judge Hedges is a former United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (1986-2007), where he was the Compliance Judge for the Court Mediation Program, a member of the Lawyers Advisory Committee, and a member of and reporter for the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Committee. A member of the Advisory Group of Magistrate Judges from 2001-2005, he has also been a member of the American Law Institute, the American and Federal Bar Associations, and the Historical Society and the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Judge Hedges has served on the Sedona Conference Judicial Advisory Board; the Sedona Conference Working Group on Protective Orders, Confidentiality, and Public Access; and the Sedona Conference Working Group on Best Practices for Electronic Document Retention & Protection. He has also been a member of the Advisory Board of the Advanced E-Discovery Institute of Georgetown University Law Center. He is a former Fellow at the Center for Information Technology of Princeton University and has been a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas.

Judge Hedges has been an adjunct professor at Rutgers School of Law-Newark and is a former adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and Seton Hall University School of Law, where he has taught courses on electronic discovery and evidence and mediation skills. He is the author of “Rule 26(f): The Most Important E-Discovery Rule” (New Jersey Law Journal, 5/18/2009) and has authored, edited and co-edited a number of other publications on ESI topics including Discovery of Electronically Stored Information: Surveying the Legal Landscape (BNA, 2007). He is the principal author of the third edition of the Federal Judicial Center’s Pocket Guide for Judges on Discovery of Electronic Information.

Judge Hedges received his B.A. from the University of Maryland and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
(8/23)

Hon. Sohail Mohammed, P.J.Cr.

Presiding Criminal Judge, Superior Court of New Jersey - Passaic Vicinage

Vincent I. Ferrer, Esq.

A.Y. Strauss, Livingston

Sean Joyce, Esq.

Carmagnola & Ritardi, LLC, Morristown

Randi W. Kochman, Esq.

Cole Schotz P.C., Hackensack

Gail Maddox-Canteen

The GMC Human Resource Consulting Group LLC

Diana C. Manning, Esq.

Bressler Amery & Ross, PC, Florham Park

Certified as a Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, is a Principal of Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C. in the firm’s Florham Park, New Jersey, office. She concentrates her practice in complex commercial litigation and appellate advocacy, and has represented clients in those matters for more than 25 years.

Ms. Manning is admitted to practice in New Jersey and New York, and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Southern District of New York, the Second and Third Circuit Courts of Appeals, the United States Bankruptcy Court and the United States Supreme Court. Past President of the Morris County Bar Association and Foundation, and Trial Attorneys of New Jersey (TANJ), she has served on TANJ’s Amicus Committee and is Secretary of the New Jersey State Bar Association. Ms. Manning has also been appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court as Chair of the District XA Ethics Committee and has been Vice Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Amicus Committee. Because of her depth of experience in the area of legal malpractice, she was also appointed to the NJSBA Blue Ribbon Panel Committee in Professional Malpractice.

Ms. Manning authored the “State of New Jersey” chapter of The Law of Lawyers’ Liability: Fifty-State Survey of Legal Malpractice (ABA/First Chair Press, 2012), which gives an overview of the laws governing attorney wrongdoing in each state, written by lawyers who practice in that state. She is a frequent lecturer for ICLE on legal malpractice and professional responsibility topics and the recipient of several honors.

Ms. Manning received her B.A. from Rutgers College and her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law-Newark.
(8/23)

William H. Mergner, Jr., Esq.

President, New Jersey State Bar Association
Leary Bride Mergner & Bongiovanni P.A., Cedar Knolls

James M. Mets, Esq.

Mets Schiro & McGovern, LLP, Iselin

Thomas P. Scrivo, Esq.

O'Toole Scrivo LLC, Cedar Grove

Steven W. Suflas, Esq.

Holland & Hart LLP, Salt Lake City