ALTERNATE DISPUTE RESOLUTION EXPERIENCE SINCE 1982
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Ralph S. Berger has been an arbitrator and mediator since 1982, now dividing his time between employment, class action, commercial and labor-management disputes. After graduating from Cornell ILR and Hofstra Law School, he became an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board. From there, he went to the NYC Office of Collective Bargaining as a trial examiner and then began his own practice as a full-time neutral in alternative dispute resolution. He has been a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators since 1989, and maintains offices in Miami Beach, FL.
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Over the years, Mr. Berger has arbitrated and mediated thousands of cases nationwide as well as in Canada through either direct appointments or administrative agencies such as the American Arbitration Association and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Cases he has handled have involved alleged breaches of individual employment contracts, Title VII, ADA, FMLA, FLSA, ADEA,
Sarbanes-Oxley, NY Labor Law, NY False Claims Act, NY Human Rights Law, NY Corrections Law, NYCHRL, NJ CEPA, and USERRA. Industries include entertainment, sports, financial services, computer technology, communications, insurance, service, hospitality, health care, insurance, real estate, pharmaceuticals, utilities, higher education, transportation, manufacturing, newspaper and broadcasting. He has served as a mediator for the Merrill Lynch Claims Resolution Process, Texaco, and a number of financial institutions. Pursuant to a Consent Decree, Mr. Berger was appointed to determine damages on account of racial discrimination at an investors service.
Mr. Berger has also been designated as an impartial in numerous collective bargaining agreements, including those between Major League Baseball and the Baseball Players Association, the National Hockey League and the Hockey League Players Association, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers and the Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA, the Directors Guild of America and several television networks, UPS/UPS Co. and its drivers, mechanics and pilots, and United Airlines and its mechanics, flight attendants and pilots.
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Mr. Berger has been an adjunct faculty member of Cornell ILR since 1981 and has served on its Alumni Association Board of Directors as well as on the Board of Advisors of the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution. He also regularly lectures for the American Arbitration Association, training new arbitrators. Mr. Berger has written and given speeches on a number of topics, such as “Learning the Art of Mediation and Arbitration,” “Arbitration in a Time of Economic Crisis,” and “Differences in Arbitrating Labor and Employment Disputes.”
