Hon. Carol E. Heckman (Ret.), a partner at Lippes Mathias LLP and leader of the firm’s alternative dispute resolution practice team, recently participated in a roundtable discussion on mass arbitration hosted by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) as part of the AAA’s 2025 Women’s Resource Group. The discussion, held on February 13, brought together arbitration professionals to examine the AAA’s new mass arbitration rules and the role of process arbitrators in administering these cases. 

Judge Heckman was joined by fellow arbitrators Jiyun Cameron Lee and Sasha Philip, along with AAA Vice Presidents Cheryl Florio and Tacy Zysk. The panelists discussed the implementation of the AAA’s revised rules, shared insights from their experiences serving as process arbitrators, and explored the broader impact of mass arbitration on dispute resolution. 

Mass arbitration refers to a procedural framework in which large numbers of individual arbitration claims are filed simultaneously against a single company, often in a coordinated manner by the same legal counsel. The AAA’s new rules are designed to provide greater efficiency and consistency in handling these complex cases. 

About Hon. Carol E. Heckman (Ret.) 

With more than 40 years of experience as a trial lawyer and judge, Judge Heckman (Ret.) has an active practice as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association and conducts arbitrations in most major metropolitan areas with a particular concentration in New York City. In addition to arbitrations and mediations, Judge Heckman was selected as a fellow to the College of Commercial Arbitrators, an exclusive group of commercial arbitrators representing the best in the United States, where she serves as co-chair of the Education Committee and as a member of its Board of Directors. Judge Heckman is a contributing author to that group’s new edition of Best Practices in Commercial Arbitration, due to be published in March of 2025. 

Judge Heckman served as a magistrate judge in the Western District of New York for eight years, where she was selected to sit on the Federal Judicial Conference’s Education Committee for Magistrate Judges and served as an officer in the Federal Magistrate Judges Association. She has also served as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., an assistant U.S. attorney in Buffalo, New York, and as a law clerk for Hon. John T. Curtin, former chief judge of the Western District of New York. 

About Lippes Mathias LLP

Lippes Mathias is a full-service law firm with more than 220 attorneys serving clients regionally, nationally, and internationally. With offices in Buffalo, Clarence, Albany, Long Island, New York, Rochester, Syracuse, and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Greater Toronto Area; Chicago, Ill.; Jacksonville and West Palm Beach, Fla.; Cleveland, Ohio; San Antonio, Texas; Oklahoma City, Okla. and Washington, D.C., the firm represents publicly and privately-owned companies, private equity and venture capital firms, independent sponsors, real estate developers, financial institutions, municipalities, governmental entities, and individuals. 

Year after year, Lippes Mathias is proud to be recognized by The Best Lawyers in America®, U.S. News - Best Lawyers®, Super Lawyers, and Chambers USA. For more information, visit www.lippes.com.