Karen DeSoto in the last few years has focused her attention
to the field of international mediation. She currently serves as a professor at
New Jersey City University where she and David S. Weiss founded and co-direct
the Institute for Dispute Resolution, while she continues to appear on
television as a legal analyst at NBC News.
Previously she served as a
practicing attorney; founded the Center for Legal Justice, and became the first
women, first Hispanic, and youngest lawyer to ever be appointed Chief Counsel
for the city of Jersey City, New jersey. For years she was active in workplace
equality at a time when The Hudson Reporter named her to their list of Top 50
Most Influential people, calling her “a force to be reckoned with.”
These days Karen is mostly focused
on the IDR, promoting international mediation in New jersey -- through the
Applied Research Department of the IDR. In 2017 the New Jersey International Arbitration,
Mediation, and Conciliation Act was signed into law, an initiative introduced
by the IDR.
This year at the 12th Annual International
Commercial Mediation Competition in Paris, France, three students from the IDR,
Justin Davis, Kaylee Saltos, and Leman Kaifa represented NJCU. They were the
only business school students to be selected from the U.S.A., as all others were
teams pulled from law schools.
In the week-long mock mediation sessions, where students
were given practical learning experience, the team from NJCU represented
excellent skills and knowledge about the mediation field. The students were
coached by Christian Corrales and Karen DeSoto, getting excellent insights
about the legal world in general and the mediation and arbitration world in
particular.
Last year Leman Kaifa was part of the team at the Consensual
Dispute Resolution Competition (CDRC) in Vienna, Austria, and winning an Award
for Best Opening Statements.
Karen DeSoto
was quoted as saying, “We’re so immensely proud of our students. They
competed at the highest levels. The entire experience I think has been great
for all of us. The Institute has raised the profile of New Jersey City
University, provided students to expand their knowledge and worldviews as they
travel internationally — meeting and competing with other students from all
over the world.”
The students of IDR (Institute for Dispute Resolution) have
competed several times in Paris and Vienna to date.
