Best Lawyers in America for Arbitration
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State
David Ackerman defends law firms in professional malpractice and legal ethics actions. A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, clients value his litigation experience and strategic insight in resolving disputes through trial and appeals, negotiation, or arbitration. Ranked by Chambers USA , where he is described as “an even-keeled, thoughtful and smart attorney,” he is repeatedly recognized by Florida Trend’s Legal Elite and included in The Best Lawyers in America...
Terrance E. Schmidt is a Florida-based mediator, arbitrator, and retired civil litigator with over 50 years of legal experience. A Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator and longtime member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, he has mediated more than 6,000 cases and served as an arbitrator in dozens more. Mr. Schmidt’s career as a commercial litigator spanned a wide range of complex disputes—including business torts, securities, employment discrimin...
John I. Houseal, Jr., concentrates his practice in the areas of litigation, including health care and construction. In addition, his practice also focuses on compliance, ERISA, and insurance coverage. A significant portion of his practice involves representing clients regarding compliance with federal and state laws, as well as in the litigation of construction related issues. Practice includes: State and Federal Court Litigation Construction Litigation ERISA Litigation and Consultation Antit...
Lewis Remele is regarded as one of the leading lawyers in Minnesota, and was the top vote-getter in the annual Minnesota Super Lawyers list in 2001-2005, 2008-2009, 2011-2014, 2016 and 2018. He was named as the 2019 Minneapolis Arbitration Lawyer of the Year, 2009 and 2013 Minneapolis Bet-the-Company Litigator of the Year, and 2012 Legal Malpractice Law–Defendants Lawyer of the Year by The Best Lawyers in America. He is listed in Law and Leading Attorneys and Who’s Who in American...
Thomas A. Barnard is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Litigation - Environmental and Mediation. Thomas A., who practices law in Indianapolis, Indiana, has been recognized since 2007. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Thomas A. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Brad Kimbro , executive partner of Holland & Knight's Tampa Bay region, is a trial lawyer whose practice emphasizes commercial litigation, including actions involving contract disputes, fraud, shareholder disputes, dissenters' rights, directors' and officers' liability, securities, real estate, business torts, non-competition agreements, petroleum marketing, creditors' rights, construction disputes, and environmental litigation. Mr. Kimbro is a certified public accountant licensed in the ...
Chalk is a 1973 graduate of University of Texas School of Law (J.D.), with prior M.A. (1967) and B.S. (1962) degrees from Tennessee Tech University, and A.A. degree (1956) from Freed-Hardeman College. Prior to joining in 1986 Whitaker Chalk Swindle & Schwartz PLLC, Fort Worth, Texas, and its predecessors, Chalk was President of Dabney Capital, Dallas, Texas (1984-86) (real estate finance), General Counsel and Vice President of LaJet, Inc., Abilene, Texas (1978-84) (petroleum refining and ...
Personal relationships have always been the backbone of Sonny Ferguson’s law practice. He says parties respond to someone who will listen to their issues and provide them with a truthful evaluation of the facts. Once the parties engage the firm’s services, as a mediator or as a Private Judge, Sonny believes they deserve 100% of his attention to their issues and a timely resolution to their matter. Sonny joined Christian & Small after serving as a judge for 15 years in the Dome...
As leader of the Labor and Employment Practice Group in Dickinson Wright’s Phoenix office, Sam Coffman has over 30 years of experience counseling employers in all areas of employment law, including management and labor practices, hiring, discipline, terminations, terms of employment, and the review and drafting of employment policies, manuals and employee contracts. His strong employment-related litigation background includes representing clients in Title VII claims, breach of contract ...
Ben Riley is a Principal of the firm and serves on its Executive Committee. He has tried nearly 30 cases to verdict including jury trials, court trials, and complex arbitrations. His practice focuses on Intellectual Property Litigation, including patents, trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks and license disputes. He also has an active practice in Business Litigation, including class action defense, defense of “consumer claims” under the Lanham Act and unfair competition statutes,...
Judge Moore co-leads AZA’s appellate practice group. He has prosecuted more than 100 appeals in state and federal courts. In one day in 2021, Judge Moore argued two governmental-immunity cases back-to-back in the Texas Supreme Court. He won both. The two cases he argued are City of San Antonio v. Armando D. Rioja and City of San Antonio v. Jimmy Maspero . Judge Moore is a go-to lawyer for high-stakes, high-profile, complex litigation. (He recently represented Ben & Jerry’s and...
Biography His broad-based legal experience includes presiding as a municipal court judge of the City of Houston, a state district judge of both a Civil and Family District Courts, and served as assistant attorney general for the State of Texas and briefing clerk for the Honorable Judge Ingraham, Federal District Judge for the Southern District of Texas. He has extensive experience in civil trials and appeals involving complex litigation and family law cases. His mediation experience includes ...
George is passionate about achieving the best practical result, but he tries not to lose sight of humor and humanity in the process. He has been practicing law for over four decades and focuses on litigating, arbitrating, and mediating business and construction disputes. His trial experience is extensive and multi-faceted, before juries and arbitrators alike throughout New England and New York, including numerous construction and design claims, some involving tens of millions of dollars; prod...
Patricia Costello served for more than 25 years as a New Jersey Superior Court Judge, including ten years as the Assignment Judge in Essex County. During her tenure as Assignment Judge, she supervised all of the county’s trial and municipal courts, including more than 100,000 filings per year, 1,000 employees and a $55 million annual budget. Appointed to the bench in 1989 by then Governor Thomas Kean, Judge Costello spent the first 15 years of her judicial career in Hudson County, servi...
David A. Hoffman is a mediator, arbitrator, attorney, and founding member of Boston Law Collaborative, LLC. David is listed in the book “The Best Lawyers in America” in five categories (Mediation, Arbitration, Collaborative Law – Civil, Collaborative Law - Family, and Family Law Mediation). He was named Boston's "Lawyer of the Year" in Collaborative Law in 2014, in Mediation for 2016, in Arbitration in 2018, and again in Mediation for 2020. He has been named a Massachusetts ...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.