Mentz, Barbara

Barbara A. Mentz, Esq.

As an advocate, Barbara Mentz has handled mediations and arbitrations for clients in a wide range of matters, including significant multi-party actions involving claims from millions of dollars to billions of dollars, including matters involving accountants’ liability, professional malpractice, securities claims, securities class actions, 10b-5 actions, consulting agreements, commercial contracts, and business transactions, fees for professional services, employment contracts, negligence, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty.

Barbara Mentz has over 34 years of experience as a litigation partner and associate, specializing in complex multi-party commercial litigation, business disputes and regulatory investigations. During her nineteen years at Deloitte, Ms. Mentz served as the lead in-house attorney on litigation and regulatory investigations related to matters ranging in value from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. Before Deloitte, Ms. Mentz’ practiced in law firms as a partner and an associate and in a media corporation as an in-house counsel for fifteen years.

Experience

• Mediator & Arbitrator, at Agency for Dispute Resolution (2015-Present)
• Mediator and Arbitrator (2007-Present)
• Associate General Counsel and Principal at Deloitte, LLP (1988-2007)
• General Attorney at CBS, Inc. (1986-1988)
• Partner at Hall, McNichol, Hamilton & Clark (1979-1986)
• Senior Associate at Forsyth, Decker, Murray & Hubbard (1977-1979)
• Associate at Sullivan & Cromwell (1973-1977)

Education

• J.D., magna cum laude, at University of Notre Dame Law School (1973)
• B.A., economics, at University of Kansas (1965)

Affiliations

• Fellow at Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb)
• Large, Complex Commercial Panel of Arbitrators at American Arbitration Association (AAA)
• Member of the AAA Accounting Advisory Committee and its Subcommittee on Disclosure Rules
• International Panel of Arbitrators at International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR)
• International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution-Banking, Accounting and Financial Services and the Employment Panels of Arbitrators
• U.S. Council of International Business (for ICC International Court of Arbitration)
• Roster of Arbitrators at National Futures Association (NFA)
• Roster of Arbitrators at Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
• ArbitralWomen

Accolades

• AV Peer Review Rating-34 years
• AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating (2010-2014)
• Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers-Inaugural Edition (2011-2014)
• ALM Legal Leaders 2013 edition of New York Area’s Top Rated Lawyers (Arbitration, Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution)
• Avenue Magazine, Recognized as one of Avenue’s Legal Elite (Litigation) in Manhattan (2011-2014)
• Avenue Magazine, Recognized a one of Avenue’s Top-Rated Women Lawyers in Manhattan (2011-2012)
• Marquis Who’s Who of American Women for over two decades
• Marquis Who’s Who in American Law for over two decades

Recent Publications

• CEATS, Inc. v. Continental Airlines, Inc.-Using an Objective Reasonableness Standard, the Federal Circuit Finds That a Mediator’s Duty to Disclose Potential Conflicts is Analogous to a Judge’s Duty to Recuse Under 28 U.S.C. §455(a), NEW YORK DISPUTE RESOLUTION LAWYER, Vol.7, No.2 (2014)
• District Court Reverses, as an Abuse of Discretion, a Bankruptcy Court Order of Sanctions and Contempt for Failure to Participate in Good Faith in a Court-Ordered Mediation, NEW YORK DISPUTE RESOLUTION LAWYER, Vol. 4, No. 3 (2011)
• Applicability of the Supreme Court’s Decision in Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Brotherhood of Locomotive and Trainmen to Step Clauses, NEW YORK DISPUTE RESOLUTION LAWYER, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2010)
• Step Clauses: Obstacles to Enforceability, NEW YORK DISPUTE RESOLUTION LAWYER, Vol. 2, No.1 (2009)
• Chapter 9, Choice of Law, FEDERAL CIVIL PROCEDURE, New York State Bar Association (Albany 1989, Supp. 1993, 1998 & 2000)

Recent Speaking Engagements

• Panel Chair and Moderator, “Making Better Choices,” New York State Bar Association, joint program of the Dispute Resolution Section and the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section (2012)
• Faculty, AAA Webinar, Muscular Arbitration Series: “Does This Discovery Make My Arbitration Look Fat?” (2012)
• Panelist, “The ‘Wahala* Factor’: How to Mediate a Problematic Real Estate Dispute,” Joint program of the Dispute Resolution Section of the New York State Bar Association and the Nigerian Lawyers Association (2011)
• Panelist, Beyond the Basic Arbitration Agreement: Increasing the Speed and Efficiency of Commercial Arbitration, Association of Corporate Counsel (2008)

“As a neutral, with extensive dispute resolution experience as in-house and outside counsel, I work with the parties to achieve what they bargained for – a fair, efficient, cost-effective, time-sensitive dispute resolution process that does not simply mirror litigation.”

T 800.616.1202 x768

Case Manager
Michele T. Pfeiffer

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