Our Faculty

St. John's boasts a wealth of faculty with expertise in the field of Dispute Resolution.  The Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution is guided by:

Elayne E. Greenberg
Assistant Dean of Dispute Resolution Programs
Professor of Legal Skills
Director, Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution

Elayne E. Greenberg became the first Director of the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution at St. John's in 2009. She offers an unmatched breadth and depth of experience in dispute resolution. She is a mediator and conflict management consultant who has developed programs, educated, trained, written and lectured nationally on the subject of negotiation, mediation, hybrid dispute resolution processes, dispute resolution ethics and advocacy in dispute resolution.

Paul F. Kirgis
Professor of Law
Founder, Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution

Paul Kirgis teaches Negotiation and Alternative Dispute Resolution and serves as Faculty Chair of the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution.   His scholarship focuses on dispute resolution both within and outside of the traditional civil litigation paradigm, exploring topics including the role of juries as decisionmakers in the civil justice system and the theory underlying judicial deference to arbitration awards. His articles have appeared in the Oregon Law Review, William & Mary Law Review, Ohio State Law Review, Georgia Law Review, and the peer-reviewed Negotiation Journal, among others.

 Our Securities Arbitration Clinic is led by:

Lisa A. Catalano
Director, Securities Arbitration Clinic and Associate Professor of Clinical Legal Education

Lisa Catalano directs the St. John’s Securities Arbitration Clinic. She has extensive experience representing broker-dealers and brokers in customer disputes, regulatory investigations, and collection and employment matters, and has conducted numerous arbitration hearings, training sessions and seminars.  She also serves as an arbitrator with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Her scholarship includes The Tort of Giving Negligent Investment Advice (with Seth Lipner), published in the University of Memphis Law Review.

Christine Lazaro
Supervising Attorney, Securities Arbitration Clinic

Christine Lazaro is an experienced securities dispute resolution advocate.  She supervises students in the Securities Arbitration Clinic and coaches dispute resolution competition teams.

In addition, St. John's boasts an impressive roster of full-time faculty members who teach, write, and/or practice in the field of Dispute Resolution, and contribute their energies and expertise to the growth of Dispute Resolution at St. John's, including:

David L. Gregory
Dorothy Day Professor of Law

David Gregory is a nationally-recognized scholar in the fields of Labor and Employment Law, with several books and more than two hundred academic and professional publications to his credit. He is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators, and he is on the Labor and Employment Arbitrator Panels of the American Arbitration Association, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the New York State Public Employment Relations Board, and the New York City Office of Collective Bargaining.  He is also a designated arbitrator on many private and public sector labor contracts.

Mark L. Movsesian
Frederick A. Whitney Professor of Contract Law

Mark Movsesian teaches International Commercial Arbitration, as well as Contracts and Comparative Law & Religion. A former clerk to Justice David Souter of the United States Supreme Court, his publications have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Virginia Journal of International Law, Washington & Lee Law Review, and Cardozo Law Review, among many others.

Janice Villiers
Associate Professor of Law

 Janice Villiers teaches Interviewing and Counseling, as well as courses in Immigration Law. In addition to her J.D. from Columbia, she holds a Master’s degree in Counselor Education from New York University’s School of Education, Health, Nursing and Arts Professions. A co-founder of the Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development, she launched St. John’s University's Community Business Development Program, which assists minority, women, small, disadvantaged and local business enterprises in their long-term growth and development.

Ettie Ward
Professor of Law

Ettie Ward is a practicing mediator who also specializes in international dispute resolution and complex litigation. Her publications include Mandatory Court-Annexed Alternative Dispute Resolution in the United States Federal Courts: Panacea or Pandemic, published as part of St. John’s School of Law’s Symposium entitled Transatlantic Perspectives on ADR. She is active in the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution and the AALS Section of Dispute Resolution, and is a frequent lecturer on dispute resolution.

Nicholas R. Weiskopf
Professor of Law

Nick Weiskopf teaches in the area of Commercial Arbitration, and has extensive experience as a commercial arbitrator. His scholarship focuses on contracts, commercial law, and arbitration, including his article Arbitral Injustice: Rethinking the Manifest Disregard Standard for Judicial Review of Awards, published in the University of Louisville Law Review, and Hall Street, Judicial Review of Arbitral Awards, and Federal Preemption, published in the Review of Litigation.

Adam Zimmerman
Assistant Professor of Law

Adam Zimmerman served as counsel to Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg in the design and administration of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.  Afterwards, he was associated with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where he represented clients in complex commercial litigation and mass tort cases, as well as domestic and international arbitration. His scholarship explores the way class action attorneys, regulatory agencies and criminal prosecutors provide justice to large groups of victims through overlapping systems of tort law, administrative law and criminal law. His recent articles have been accepted for publication in the Columbia Law Review, Duke Law JournalNew York University Law Review, and University of Pennsylvania Law Review.  

We make extensive use of Adjunct Faculty who bring their real-world practice experience to our students.  Our roster of Adjunct Faculty teaching in Dispute Resolution includes:

Peter J. Bernbaum, Mediator, Arbitrator, and Attorney.  Professor Bernbaum has more than 30 years of experience negotiating settlements and other agreements for parties to disputes and for clients in a broad spectrum of industries and encompassing a wide range of legal matters.  He teaches Drafting ADR Documents and Intensive Negotiation.

Nancy M. Thevenin, Special Counsel, Baker McKenzie LLP.
Professor Thevenin is global coordinator for Baker & McKenzie’s International Arbitration Practice Group.  Her experience includes both arbitration and mediation under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”) and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution of the American Arbitration Association.  She specializes in international commercial litigation, international arbitration, creditors’ rights and business torts. She teaches Internation Commercial Arbitration.

Scott E. Mollen, Partner, Herrick Feinstein, LLP.  Professor Mollen is an experienced mediator and attorney.  He serves on the Board of Editors of the New York Law Journal, for which he writes a weekly column.  Professor Mollen teaches Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Please contact us to learn more about St. John's Law faculty affiliated with the Carey Center.

Carey Center