Gary P. Shaffer

An honors graduate of Harvard University and the Cardozo Law School of Yeshiva University, where I also served on the Law Review, I bring more than 30 years of litigation, negotiation, and mediation experience to my work as a mediator. I have successfully negotiated and mediated resolutions in employment cases, family matters, commercial disputes of varying kinds, personal injury cases, and major civil rights matters.  I have tried everything from small claims cases to class actions, and served for several years as New York City’s chief trial counsel in the World Trade Center Litigation, a position that required deft handling of various opposing counsel, numerous public and private litigants, city agencies, the press, and politicians.  For several years I served as the NYC Department of Building’s Assistant Commissioner for Regulatory Policy and Enforcement where I oversaw enforcement of the zoning and building codes for the nation’s largest City.  In this position I dealt with real estate and land use issues facing single family home owners, small and medium sized commercial real estate owners, and enormous developers with complex projects, involving contractors, subcontractors, and architects.

As a litigator my approach was to maintain a firm position, while always keeping the door open to resolution. I successfully negotiated settlements in thousands of cases over the years.  Realizing that mediation allowed parties to keep costs down and craft resolutions they often could not obtain in court, I began studying mediation in 1995, completing both Basic and Divorce Mediation Training at the NYC Bar Association. Thereafter, I studied Divorce Mediation at the Ackerman Family Institute for the Family, and at the New York City Bar Association under noted Divorce Mediator, Bob Collins, Esq. I have studied Commercial Mediation under Simeon Baum and Steve Hochman.  Recognizing my success as a mediator I have been appointed as a member of the Mediation Panel of the Southern District of NY, and the Commercial Mediation Panel of New York State Supreme Court, New York County.  In 2015 I was selected as one of ten mediators for a new mediation panel of the U.S. 2d Circuit Court of Appeals.