Successful Settlement Techniques Inside and Outside of Court

The NYS Academy of Trial Lawyers is the largest statewide trial bar in the US with 5,700+ lawyer and judge members. We are committed to protecting, preserving and enhancing the civil justice system. Our highly acclaimed CLE programming features extraordinary presenters covering the most timely and important topics.

George J. Silver created and runs Silverstar Mediation and Arbitration LLC. He previously served as the Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for the New York City Courts and is the Chair of the Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. He created an Alternative Dispute Resolution program that encourages presumptive mediation in all cases litigated within the city and developed blockbuster settlement conferences throughout the city, resulting in the reduction of backlogs through early resolution. He also handled malpractice matters and was in charge of the litigation involving the Child Victims Act cases. Silver obtained his B.S. degree in Accounting and Management from New York University (NYU), an MBA in Finance from NYU, and a law degree from Hofstra University School of Law.

Angélicque is Founding Partner at Avanzino & Moreno. She is an accomplished and passionate trial attorney, with over 25 years of experience representing injured victims, who has taken on insurance companies in a wide variety of automotive, workplace, medical malpractice, and wrongful death actions. She is a graduate of Binghamton University and Northeastern University School of Law. She has held several esteemed and prominent positions, including the Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, President of the NYS Puerto Rican Bar Association, and is a Past-President of the Academy.

Justice Doris Gonzalez was born in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx. She grew up in the Boston Secor Housing Projects near Dyre Ave. Both of her parents were born in Puerto Rico but met in New York. Her mom worked part-time as a lunch aid at her grammar school, Saint Philip and James, and her father was a furniture finisher. Her father completed seventh grade, and her mother received her GED through a program offered by NYCHA. She has an older brother, retired from law enforcement, and a sister who is the assistant to a podiatrist in the Bronx. Most importantly, she is a single mother to a 21-year-old daughter, Milta, a volleyball player attending Monroe College. Justice Gonzalez attended Cardinal Spellman High School, Fordham University, Rose Hill, and received her Juris Doctor from C.U.N.Y. Law School at Queens College. In 1985, she started her legal career in the insurance industry, where very few Hispanic female attorneys were employed. She rose through the ranks to become a senior trial attorney, handling high-profile cases. After 15 years of practice in the private sector, she went to work for a Supreme Court judge in the Appellate Term 1st Department and then in the Supreme Court Civil Division, Bronx County. She served as a member of her local Community Board, the Neighborhood Advisory Board (Chairperson), and the Community Action Board (Chairperson for Queens and Bronx County). She was elected as a Civil Court Judge in Bronx County in November 2006. In December 2009, Judge Pfau appointed her as Acting Supreme Court Justice. She sat in Supreme Criminal Bronx County for three years, Supreme Court Matrimonial Division for three years, and currently sits in the Supreme Court Civil Division, Bronx County, handling an array of civil matters in the Special Trial Part and the Foreclosure Part. She was elected to Supreme Court in 2016. On December 21, 2018, Judge Larry Marks appointed her as Administrative Judge of Supreme Court Bronx County Civil Matters. She served as: i) President of the Latino Judges Association; ii) Chair of the Gender Fairness Committee (on the 'Women of Distinction' subcommittee); iii) Chair of the Committee to Encourage Judicial Service for the New York City Bar; iv) appointed to the Judicial Advisory Council, serving on the facilities and technology committee. Justice Gonzalez remains on the Foreclosure Task Force of the New York City Bar, the Special Committee to Encourage Judicial Service, the Board Chair of the not-for-profit Legacy Volleyball Club, the Board of Trustees of Preston High School, a sustaining member of The Bronx County Bar Association and The Bronx Women’s Bar Association, and a member of the Puerto Rican Bar Association.

Judith McMahon is a judge of the New York Supreme Court, 13th Judicial District. McMahon served as the administrative judge of the court from 2012 until her resignation in September 2017. McMahon attended Rutgers College of Pharmacy in 1977 for her Bachelor of Science and received her J.D. from New York Law School in 1985. McMahon began her career in 1985 as a trial lawyer with the firm of Julien and Schlesinger, PC. From 1990 to 2001, she served as principal law clerk to Justice John Leone. She then worked as a court attorney for Judge Eric Vitaliano until 2002. McMahon's judicial career began in 2003 when she was elected to the New York City Civil Court in Richmond County. She was appointed as an acting justice of the Supreme Court in 2006 and was then elected to the Supreme Court in 2009.