Lippes Mathias is proud to share that Hon. Carol E. Heckman (Ret.), a partner with more than four decades of legal and judicial experience, has completed the American Arbitration Association’s (AAA) advanced training to arbitrate managed care disputes within the health care industry. With this designation, Judge Heckman has been appointed to the AAA’s national Judicial Payor Provider Panel, a group restricted to former judges. 

The Judicial Payor Provider Panel specializes in arbitrating payor-provider disputes, offering parties access to highly skilled arbitrators with significant experience in the complexities of health care billing, coding, and reimbursement. This specialized panel is part of the AAA National Healthcare Panel, which was established to provide targeted expertise in resolving disputes involving health care transactions in addition to her extensive background in commercial litigation, arbitration and mediation, and her time on the federal bench, Judge Heckman served for six years, from 2018-2024, on the Board of Directors for a major health care system. She joins a select group of judicial panelists who are trained on managed care principles and the AAA’s Payor Provider Rules. 

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 210 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, 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.