New Jersey Federal Civil Procedure

Elizabeth J. Sher,  Partner

Ms. Sher practices in the area of litigation. She has represented many long-standing clients, including Exxon Mobil Corporation, AT&T Corporation, and Sony Electronics Inc. In addition to general complex commercial litigation, she also handles appellate matters, professional liability matters, directors and officers liability defense, and consumer class action defense.

Ms. Sher also participates in the professional development and training program, and participates in the firm's litigation support and technology efforts, focusing on the use of computers for litigation support. Some of the complex litigation she has handled has involved the creation, maintenance, and use of imaged document databases covering more than a million documents. She also has been actively involved in the firm's development and implementation of computerized databases for in-house legal forms, briefs, and memoranda, and task-based billing systems.

A member of the New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania Bars, Ms. Sher has participated in trials, appeals, and hearings in both state and federal court in New Jersey and New York, as well as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. She has also participated in state administrative matters and in applications addressed to the United States Supreme Court. In addition to her litigation experience, Ms. Sher has training and experience in mediation, both as a mediator and representing clients in mediation.

Ms. Sher clerked for The Honorable Leonard I. Garth, now senior judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Her practice Areas include:

·  Appellate Practice

·  Shareholder and Securities Litigation

Elizabeth J. Shere Represented Agfa Corporation; Cendant Corporation; International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc.; Sony Electronics, Inc.; Plus Integration; and many other clients in breach-of-contract suits, as well as AIWA America, AT&T, Midlantic National Bank (PNC), Warner-Lambert Company (Pfizer, Inc.), TD Ameritrade, Inc., and Sony Electronics Inc. in consumer and shareholder class-action suits. She also represented Exxon Mobil Corporation in multiple cases involving a contract dispute with a Saudi Arabian joint venture partner, including one in Delaware state court where the trial team obtained a favorable jury verdict in excess of $416 million, later upheld by the Delaware Supreme Court. W.R. Grace & Co. and E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company in environmental (CERCLA) litigation in New Jersey and New York federal courts, and Exxon Corporation in a New Jersey federal grand jury investigation and related Department of Defense proceeding and commercial civil litigation were also represented by her.  Her name has been featured in several of the following news, publications, and presentations as well:

• Featured, "Seventy Seven Day Pitney Partners Named to Best Lawyers 2010," Day Pitney Press Release, July 30, 2009
• Co-moderator, "Navigating Your Way Through Multi-Party Litigation in Federal Court," New Jersey State Bar Association Annual Convention, May 14, 2009
• Featured, "Thirty Three Day Pitney Attorneys Named New Jersey Super Lawyers," Day Pitney Press Release, April 1, 2009
• Featured, "75 Day Pitney Partners Named Among The Best Lawyers in America® 2009 Ranked #1 in New Jersey and #2 in Connecticut," Day Pitney Press Release, December 11, 2008
• Co-author, "Supreme Court Grants Certiorari to Clarify Appealability of Remand Orders," Appellate Alert, October 16, 2008
• Co-editor, 2008 New Jersey Federal Civil Procedure, New Jersey Law Journal Press, 2008
• Featured, "Day Pitney Lawyers Take Center Stage At Fordham Law School Conference," Day Pitney Press Release, August 11, 2008
• Speaker, APRL's "Annual Meeting," New York, NY, August 7-9, 2008
• "Best Practices," NITA Notes, March 2008
• "Faculty Q&A," NITA Notes, February 2008
• "Practice Made Perfect: The Art of Litigation," Inside the Minds: Litigation Prosecution and Defense, Aspatore Books, 2006
• "Defective Class Reps=SOL Tolling," New Jersey Lawyer, October 31, 2005
• Preparing for Commercial Litigation: A "Goods Sold and Delivered" Case Study, Panel Moderator for Institute of Continuing Legal Education, September 2004
• "Aiding the Enemy: Compelled Disclosure of Attorney Work Product," InfoTech Law Alert, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1998
• "Court Nixes Fees for Fact Witnesses," with Ronald Coleman, The National Law Journal, September 22, 1997
• "Trespassing in Cyberspace," InfoTech Law Alert, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1997
• "The Information Highway: A Ticket to Court?," InfoTech Law Alert, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1996
• "The Legal Complexity of Advertising on the Internet," InfoTech Law Alert, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1996
• "Caution: Potholes Ahead," InfoTechnology Law Update, Vol. 1, No. 3, May 1995
• "Combined Training is Bonus Component in Partnering," Corporate Legal Times, October 1994
• Using Computers for Litigation Support, Panel Participant for Institute of Continuing Legal Education, August 1994
• "Computerized Litigation Support Gives an Edge," with Edward J. Hansen, New Jersey Lawyer, 3 NJC 2087, 1994
• "Demographics of Legal Profession Make ADR Inevitable," Corporate Legal Times, May 1993
• "ERISA: Why Make a Federal Case?" New Jersey Lawyer, Jan./Feb. 1992

Ms. Sher graduated from New York University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 1983 after first attending Brandeis University, where she earned her B.A., summa cum laude, 1980, Phi Beta Kappa. She is a Board Member of the Historical Society of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, a member of the American Bar Association, and the Federal Practice and Procedure Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association. Her current admissions also include the following:

• State of New Jersey, 1984
• State of New York, 1983
• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 2008
• U.S. Supreme Court, 2008
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 1984
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 2007
• U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, 1984
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 1997
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 2008

Her other outside interests included serving as an adjunct faculty member for both Newark schools, Seton Hall University School of Law (2000) and Rutgers University School of Law (1999-2000).  Currently, she is a faculty member of The National Institute of Trial Advocacy (national and regional deposition and trial advocacy training programs in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, Colorado), 1998-present, a volunteer mediator for the Mediation Panel, Morris County Superior Court's Chancery Division, a volunteer for the N.J. State Bar Foundation Speaker's Bureau, a member of the Board of Directors for the Myriam's Dream Inc., and a member of the Beged Kefet choral group which rasises funds for charity. Her achievements also include:

• Chosen for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America, Commercial Litigation, 2006-2010
• Recognized as a New Jersey Super Lawyer in the area of business litigation, 2005-2009
• Recognized as one of the Top 50 female New Jersey Super Lawyers, 2009
• Chosen for inclusion in The American Lawyer as one of the Top Commercial Litigation Lawyers, 2006
• Recognized by the NJ Law Journal as a leader among women attorneys in New Jersey, 2003

Robert E. Bartkus is Of Counsel to McCusker, Anselmi, Rosen Carvelli, P.C. (and a former member of Dillon, Bitar Luther, L.L.C.) in Florham Park, New Jersey, where he has concentrated in commercial litigation and now devotes his practice to mediation and arbitration. He graduated in 1968 with honors in economics from Swarthmore College, where he was an Open Scholar, and in 1976 from Stanford Law School, where he was co-articles editor on the 28 Stan. L. Rev. 285 (Jan. 1976), was prescient regarding contemporary monopolization issues and coined the term “predatory innovation.” He began New Jersey Civil Practice as a project of the NJSBA Federal Practice Committee (now section) and has been an editor of the ALM publication New Jersey Federal Civil Procedure since 1999, initially a hardbound book and now an annual soft cover. A contributor to the New Jersey Law Journal on federal procedural issues, Mr. Bartkus is a member of its editorial board. He also has been a frequent author and lecturer on federal procedure and arbitration, including “Drafting International Arbitration Clauses” in magazine, and an arbitrator and mediator for the U.S. District Court. Mr. Bartkus is past chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Federal Practice and Procedure Section and the New Jersey Supreme Court Ethics and Fee Arbitration (chair) committees in Morris County. He is a Vice President of the Historical Society of the U.S. District Court and a Master in the John Lifland Intellectual Property Inn of Court. He has served as an arbitrator on scores of federal, NASD, and AAA matters over three decades. In 2016, he was elected as a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators. He served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy from 1968 to 1972.