Simeon H. Baum, President

Mr. Baum has been active since 1992 as a neutral in dispute resolution, assuming the roles of mediator, neutral evaluator and arbitrator, having resolved over 600 disputes in that time.

Mr. Baum brings to the table as a mediator 25 years of litigation experience representing clients in business, tort, and reinsurance and insurance litigation. He has represented defendants in jury trials involving claims of personal injury and property damage, has been actively involved in numerous reinsurance/insurance coverage disputes and has handled a wide variety of business and commercial matters including real estate, coop/condo litigation, defamation, intellectual property, construction litigation, unfair competition, Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC"), creditors rights, bankruptcy, business fraud, employment discrimination, securities litigation and partnership dissolution.

He blends this litigation experience with mediation training and experience and exposure to issues relating to the sensitive handling of conflict and dialogue through undergraduate and graduate work in the Comparative Study of Religion.

MEDIATION and NEUTRAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION SERVICES

Mr. Baum has a longstanding involvement in Alternative Dispute Resolution ("ADR"). He serves as a neutral on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Mediation Panel; the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York Mediation and Early Neutral Evaluation Panels; the New York County Supreme Court's Commercial Division ADR Panel and Matrimonial Fee Dispute Arbitration Panel; the New York County Small Claims Court's Arbitration and Mediation Panels; the mediation panel of the National Association of Securities Dealers ("NASD"); is on Judicate's non-judicial mediation panel; and has been invited to participate in the New York City Bar Association's ADR panel for disputes between lawyers. He has served as a mediator or ADR neutral in connection with matters involving claims concerning admiralty, civil rights (1983), employment discrimination, fair housing discrimination, intellectual property, personal injury, insurance coverage, civil forfeiture, fraud, professional liability, bank fraud, real estate development and mortgages, rent, securities, surety bond defaults, sports management, commercial claims, attorneys fees, and ERISA benefits.

Mr. Baum is on the Advisory Committee to the New York County Supreme Court's Commercial Division ADR Panel, in connection with which he spoke at the Commercial Division's First Anniversary celebration and, for the first two anniversary celebrations, led panel discussions for its ADR neutrals. He is past Chair of the New York County Lawyers Association's Committee on Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution, of which he chaired its Continuing Legal Education ("CLE") subcommittee for several years. He currently serves as Chair of the Joint Committee on Fee Disputes and Conciliation (a collaboration of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, NYCLA, and the Bronx County Bar Association), overseeing the mandatory arbitration and voluntary mediation of attorney client fee disputes in New York and Bronx Counties, pursuant to Part 137 of the Rules of the Chief Administrator of the New York State Court system. Mr. Baum is Chair of the Legislative Tracking Subcommittee of the ABA Litigation Section's Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee; and is a member of the ABA's Dispute Resolution Section's Mediation Committee and the New York State Bar Association's ADR Committee. He has contributed articles on ADR to, inter alia, the Conflict Management Newsletter, published by the ABA's Committees on ADR and Arbitration, and to Metropolitan Corporate Counsel; serves as Official Reporter of the Colloquia held for federal court neutrals in the Eastern District of New York; and has spoken before Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye's Task Force on the implementation of ADR in the New York State Courts.

In addition to various CLE forums he has produced, moderated or spoken at, Mr. Baum has facilitated mediation training given under the auspices of the Center for International Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at the Teacher's College of Columbia University, and training for mediators on the panels of the National Association of Securities Dealers ("NASD") and United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. He has taught "The Fundamentals of ADR" at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Development, in a Certificate Program in Dispute Resolution sponsored by the Department of Finance, Law and Taxation and is currently teaching courses in Dispute Resolution Processes, including Negotiation, Mediation, and Arbitration, as an Adjunct Professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He developed and co-presented the three day training program used to train mediators on the ADR Panel of the Commercial Division of Supreme Court for New York and Westchester Counties. Mr. Baum is a regular speaker on ADR at "Bridge the Gap" CLE programs presented by NYCLA, and speaks widely before Bar Groups and other professional organizations on ADR.

BUSINESS LITIGATION

Mr. Baum has a varied background in litigation of a wide variety of matters important to businesses. He has handled commercial and corporate litigation involving securities, real estate, construction, unfair competition, common law fraud, intellectual property, defamation, commercial paper, UCC claims, creditors rights, secured transactions, and bankruptcy. He also has experience in disputes relating to partnership dissolutions and accountings.

By way of example, Mr. Baum litigated on behalf of 150 investors in the Boardwalk Marketplace securities offering, who were bilked of their multi-million dollar investment in a three square block area of Atlantic City by the convicted felon, John Galanis, and were subsequently pursued by various banks to whom their investment notes had been assigned. The notes were held to be non-negotiable instruments, freeing the investors to assert various defenses against the banks which would otherwise have been unavailable.

Representing a general contractor in a construction litigation matter, Mr. Baum used summary judgment proceedings to abort trial of a $600,000 subcontractor's claim and obtain a $200,000 award for the general contractor on the counterclaim. He has successfully prosecuted actions on commercial obligations from commencement through enforcement proceedings to obtain collection of substantial claims.

INSURANCE/REINSURANCE LITIGATION

Mr. Baum spent more than three of his years of practice exclusively in the representation of reinsurers in disputes with ceding companies or retrocessionaires. These often complex and high-stakes disputes involved the reinsurance of a variety of types of property and casualty policies, ranging from self-insured retention on retrospectively rated business, workers compensation, general liability, professional liability, and directors and officers coverage, subject to aggregate excess of loss and quota share reinsurance treaties, as well as facultative agreements. For example, Mr. Baum was involved in the successful representation of reinsurers of AIG, seeking rescission of aggregate excess quota share treaties, bearing $50 million in liability, on the ground of, inter alia, misrepresentation of the maximum premium on self-insured retention policies, serving as the trigger of liability under one set of treaties.

Mr. Baum has also been involved in ground level coverage disputes, and has represented claimants seeking disability coverage.

PRODUCTS LIABILITY and TORT LITIGATION

Mr. Baum has conducted a number of jury trials in connection with the defense of tort claims ranging from death at a construction site, through wrongful arrest, slip and fall, automobile injuries and property damage. He has been active for the last four years in the defense of numerous claims relating to personal injuries allegedly arising from exposure to asbestos. He has also been actively involved in the defense of products liability claims.

Mr. Baum has served as CLE chair of the New York County Lawyers Association's Environmental Law Committee, and, inter alia, chaired an Evening Forum at the Home of Law on legal issues relating Lead Poisoning, including the prosecution and defense of lead claims, insurance coverage, the statutory scheme and abatement. He is also a New York City Department of Health Speaker on Lead Poisoning.

PROFESSIONAL and EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

Mr. Baum is a graduate of the Fordham University School of Law, where he was Commentary Editor of the Fordham International Law Journal, and received his B.A., cum laude, and M.A., with distinction, in the Comparative Study of Religion from Colgate University. He speaks Spanish and Japanese.

Prior to attending law school he worked for the options trading operation of O'Connor & Associates on the American Stock Exchange ("AMEX") and opened and ran the New York office of First Options of Chicago, a stock options clearing house serving stock options market makers.