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Chris Kenney, Esq., Kenney
& Sams, PC, Boston
Construction, Personal Injury, Employment & Commercial
Attorney Christopher A. Kenney, a founding partner at Kenney & Sams, PC, and a former partner in the Sherin and Lodgen Litigation Department, has extensive experience in the litigation of tort and contract claims, including all types of business disputes, employment law, construction and real estate disputes. He has successfully represented both plaintiffs and defendants at trial before every level of the state and federal trial court system in Massachusetts. He also has substantial expertise as an appellate advocate.
Mr. Kenney was awarded an "AV" rating by the Martindale Hubbell National Law Directory, its highest rating for legal ability and professional ethics. In addition, Boston Magazine ranked Chris as one of the top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts. He was also named a "Superlawyer" in the areas of business litigation and civil litigation defense.
Attorney Kenney was appointed to serve as a Special Assistant Attorney General, from 1999 to 2005, representing the Commonwealth in litigation matters involving construction defect claims, constitutional law and eminent domain matters.
In addition to his active litigation practice, Chris has served as adjunct faculty at Boston University School of Law. He also frequently writes and lectures for business groups, trade associations and bar associations. He is also a formally trained mediator.
Chris is active in bar and community activities.
He is the past chair of the Trial Techniques Committee
of the American Bar Association in the Tort, Trial
and Insurance Section ("TIPS"); former President
and Director of the Massachusetts Defense Lawyers
Association, Treasurer and Director of the Massachusetts
Trial Lawyers Association and a founding member
and past Co-President of The Boston Inn of Court.
Mr. Kenney received his Bachelors Degree from Holy Cross, where he received an NCAA scholarship. He earned his law degree in 1990 from Boston University School of Law, where he was named a Paul J. Liacos scholar.
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Richard T. Corbett, McLucas & West, PC, Boston
Personal Injury, Product Liability
 Richard Corbett has been a trial lawyer practicing in the field of personal injury law since January, 1977. Over the course of his career, he has tried cases involving serious and catastrophic injuries, including wrongful death, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and burn injuries in the Massachusetts Superior Courts and the United States District Court for Massachusetts. He has also argued in the Massachusetts Appeals Court and the Supreme Judicial Court. He has represented both plaintiffs and defendants. Earlier in his career, Attorney Corbett served as in-house counsel for both Travelers and Cigna where he was able to litigate countless cases and gain a deep understanding of the insurance claims handling process. Since 1997, his association as "of counsel" at both the Law Office of Peter Eleey and his current position with McLucas & West allowed him to handle many cases representing injured plaintiffs. Attorney Corbett also served as general counsel for the Massachusetts Guarantee Fund from 2007 to 2009. Dick is a frequent panelist in Continuing Legal Education panels. He is a NITA Certified Trial Advocacy Instructor and received Mediation certification from JAMS in 2002. Since 2002, he has devoted a considerable part of his practice to acting as a neutral Mediator and Arbitrator while continuing to act as a trial lawyer, representing both plaintiffs and defendants.
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Thomas Porter, Esq., Formerly with Melick, Porter & Shea, Boston
Personal Injury, Product Liability, Employment & Commercial
A unique and varied background, covering many diverse areas has helped Tom Porter gain prominence as one of the premier mediators in the Northeast. After graduating Yale University in the mid-sixties, Tom entered Union Theological Seminary where he became an ordained minister. In 1974 he received a law degree from Boston University, and joined the litigation law firm of Parker, Coulter, Daley & White. In 1983, he became a founding partner of the Boston firm of Melick, and Porter. He studied mediation at Harvard Law School. In 1997, Tom went on sabbatical to Capetown, South Africa to study the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and conflict resolution. Upon his return to Boston, Tom gradually left his litigation work behind to focus his efforts on mediation. Tom currently teaches at Boston University, lectures and mediates throughout the United States. Tom has successfully mediated many types of disputes including, catastrophic injuries, tort cases, commercial litigation, professional malpractice, product liability and employment. He also has expertise in the areas of intellectual property and sexual abuse cases.
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Paul Kelly, Esq., Formerly with Neville & Kelley, Lexington/Springfield
Personal Injury, Product Liability
Paul Kelley is a veteran trial attorney who has conducted over 150 jury trials to conclusion. In 2000, he left his litigation practice to serve full time as an arbitrator and mediator. Paul's early experiences as an assistant DA in Middlesex and Essex counties along with his wealth of knowledge and expertise in his trial practice give him a real strength in resolving difficult and emotionally charged issues. In addition, he is a frequent member of Middlesex Superior Court medical malpractice tribunals, which has given him a deeper grasp of issues involving medical causation and pre-existing conditions. Paul is an energetic and hard-working neutral who hangs in to try to settle even the most difficult mediations. Paul has become an extremely popular full-time arbitrator and mediator with both sides and is known for his well-reasoned opinions. Cases over the last few years have involved product liability, sexual molestation, auto tort, including bicycle and pedestrian cases, premises liability, employment (wrongful discharge) and 93A litigation.
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Christopher Kauders, Esq.
Pre-Trial Solutions, Boston
Christopher Kauders is one of the region's most experienced and effective mediators and arbitrators. Since 1987, he has settled thousands of disputes involving practice areas including banking, business, Chapter 93A, construction, disability, discrimination, eminent domain, employment, family financial disputes and will contests, family owned businesses, health care, insurance coverage, landlord/tenant, legal and other professional malpractice, personal injury, real property, securities, sexual harassment, subrogation, and tort.
For over twenty years, Mr. Kauders' mediation settlement rate has been in excess of 90%. Matters range from two-party simple disputes to complex multiparty disputes. Mr. Kauders has reputation for tenaciously assisting parties reach settlements even after mediation session. He always attempts to make the process as enjoyable as possible for parties and counsel.
In 1995, Christopher P. Kauders, Esq. founded Pre-Trial Solutions, Inc. Before starting his own firm, Mr. Kauders spent eight years mediating cases as Executive Vice President of U.S. Arbitration & Mediation of New England, Inc. He was court-appointed as a founding member of the Superior Court Mediation Panels for Suffolk, Norfolk, Middlesex and Worcester counties. He has also served on mediation panels for the NASD, FDICIRTC and AAA. Before entering the ADR field as a full-time practitioner, Mr. Kauders practiced law at Bank of Boston and at the Boston law firm of Needham & Warren. Mr. Kauders has mediated and arbitrated disputes throughout New England. He has a substantial practice in New Hampshire and Maine as well as in Massachusetts. He is a frequent lecturer for continuing legal education programs and professional conferences throughout the region.
Patricia A. Barbalunga, Esq., Formerly with Moriarty, Donoghue & Leja, Springfield
Personal Injury, Business Disputes
Patty Barbalunga's twenty-two years of trial experience and extensive training in ADR has helped her to become one of the best-known neutrals in Western Massachusetts. Her litigation work at Moriarty, Donoghue & Leja, P.C., first as an associate and then a partner, was a split of about 20% plaintiff representation and 80% insurance defense. Her outstanding record earned her the honor of being named as "Massachusetts Defense Lawyer of the Year" in 2002, along with an appearance on "Good Morning America" on the topic of premises liability. Attorney Barbalunga has served as either an arbitrator or mediator on a number of ADR panels and privately for over 20 years. She has completed "commercial arbitrator training" at AAA and taught workshops there. Her easy-going manner and friendly demeanor help even the most entrenched litigants relax and try to work together to resolve their differences. Patty prides herself as being a "pleasant alternative to the courts".
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Hon. James W. Dolan, Esq., Dolan, Connly, P.C.,
Dorchester
Personal Injury, Business Disputes
 After serving over two and a half decades in the District Court, primarily in Dorchester where he was selected as "District Court Judge of the Year in 1999", Judge Dolan took an early retirement to become a founding partner of the firm of Dolan, Connly and Flaherty (now Dolan Connly, PC). Judge Dolan's great reputation while on the bench has led him to become one of the most popular neutrals in the Boston area. Judge Dolan's reputation as a mediator is that he gets to the heart of the matter quickly and is able to efficiently resolve even the most difficult disputes. As an arbitrator, his impeccable skills as a fact-finder and a real flair for writing a well-reasoned and thoughtful opinion have earned him accolades from both sides.
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Bette Roth, Roth ADR, Newton
Employment and Commercial Cases
 Bette Roth is a full time mediator and arbitrator, and has handled more than 800 cases involving a wide range of commercial, employment, securities, construction, real estate, professional malpractice, and family business/real property ownership disputes. Before 1992, Ms. Roth was a trial lawyer for several years in private practice and prior to that she was an enforcement attorney with the federal government.
Ms. Roth mediates and arbitrates with American Arbitration Association (AAA), CPR Panel of Distinguished Neutrals, FINRA, REBA, Resolute Systems, Inc., and Case Closed, among others. She is certified by the International Mediation Institute in the Hague.
Ms. Roth has spoken extensively on mediation and arbitration for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE), the Boston Bar Association (where she served as co-chair of the ADR Committee of the Litigation Section), and ALI-ABA, and she has trained arbitrators through MCLE and mediators through AAA. She has published numerous articles on dispute resolution with Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, The Practical Lawyer (ALI-ABA), the Boston Bar Journal, PIABA, NSCP Currents, MCLE, CCLE, and articles on antitrust through The Antitrust Bulletin.
Ms. Roth is the primary editor and contributing author of the national two-volume text, The Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Guide (copyright © 1993-2010 Thomson/West), a finalist for the 1994 CPR book award. This text is widely cited by litigants and judges, and has become a staple in most law libraries. Ms. Roth publishes its yearly updates, which has kept her on the forefront of ADR developments for the past 18 years.
Ms. Roth has been identified as a "Super Lawyer" in ADR each year since 2006 by Law & Politics Magazine and Boston Magazine.
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Robert H. Astor, Esq., Law Office of Robert H. Astor, Springfield
Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice
A native of New York, Robert Astor has spent the last thirty-one years in Western Massachusetts, trying cases, in both state and federal court. With offices in Springfield and Northampton, he specializes in personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death cases. Rob's extensive litigation experience has made him a popular choice as a mediator and arbitrator. In addition, an impressive string of successful jury verdicts and settlements has brought Rob much attention over the last two decades.
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