Biography

Joseph Ferraro spent more than 30 years managing and trying complex lawsuits, including more than 10 years specializing in intellectual property litigation, before retiring from Clifford Chance US LLP and forming the Ferraro Mediation Group. Joe received an A.B. from Fordham University and a J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School. He began his legal career at the New York law firm of Shea & Gould, where he was an associate from 1969 to 1977 and a partner from 1977 to 1994. At Shea & Gould he handled a wide variety of commercial, real estate and banking litigation, trying dozens of cases to courts, juries and panels of arbitrators. He became a partner in the New York office of Rogers & Wells LLP in 1994, and a partner of Clifford Chance US LLP in 2000 when Rogers & Wells merged with Clifford Chance. In 2002, he moved to the Clifford Chance office in Palo Alto, California, from which he retired in August, 2004. At Rogers & Wells and Clifford Chance, Joe managed and tried patent infringement cases in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, chemical and computer hardware fields, and counseled clients in intellectual property and licensing transactions.

In addition to participating as counsel in many mediations and settlement conferences, Joe has completed: a 40 hour mediation training course with Steven Rosenberg in Mill Valley, California (2004); a 40 hour mediation training course with the Mediation Center of San Joaquin County (2005); a 29.75 hour appellate mediation course provided by Dana Curtis Mediation for the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District in Sacramento(2006); a 24 hour advanced mediation training course with Steven Rosenberg for the Amador County Superior Court (2007); and a 40 hour course in mediating the litigated case conducted by the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution of Pepperdine University School of Law for the San Joaquin County Superior Court (2009). Joe has also received training as a mediation coach, and has served as a coach in appellate mediation training provided by the Third District Court of Appeal in 2007 and 2008. Joe is a member of the mediation panels of the Amador County Superior Court, the San Joaquin County Superior Court, the Yolo County Superior Court, the Third District Court of Appeal and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Since beginning his work as a neutral, Joe has mediated scores of disputes in business, real estate and other areas. He has served as a volunteer mediator for the Congress of Neutrals in the Contra Costa County Superior Court and as a Judge Pro Tempore to conduct settlement conferences in the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Joe has also conducted community and real estate mediations for the Mediation Center of San Joaquin County. He has mediated cases on appeal to the Third District Court of Appeal and cases before the Amador and Tuolumne County Superior Courts. And he has been a discovery referee in the Amador County Superior Court.

Joe has served as a Certified Mediator, a mediation trainer and a member of the board of directors of the Mediation Center of San Joaquin County, a non-profit organization that provides mediation and related services to the San Joaquin County community, and he is a member of the ADR Committee of the Tuolumne County Superior Court.

Joe is a member of the bar in New York and California, and is admitted to practice before the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the Eastern and Northern Districts of California, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Third and Federal Circuits. He has been awarded the highest possible rating, "AV," by Martindale-Hubbell.

Joe is a member of the the New York State Bar Association, the California State Bar, and the bar associations of San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Calaveras counties.

Joe has handled disputes in the following areas:

• Administrative and constitutional law - challenges to tax, generic drug (NY) and environmental (Maine) legislation.
• Antitrust - defending clients in government and private price-fixing and other actions; counseling clients in connection with proposed mergers.
• Arbitration - proceedings with multiple hearings arising out of contract claims and employee termination claims.
• Attorney malpractice
• Banking - cases involving negotiable instruments, mortgage foreclosures, and lender liability.
• Business torts
• Insurance coverage - for environmental damage and business interruption.
• Intellectual property - patent infringement actions in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, chemical, medical device, and computer hardware fields; trademark infringement actions; licensing disputes.
• Internal investigations
• Product liability
• Real estate - purchases and sales and commercial leases.
• Securities actions - class and derivative actions; proxy contests; 10b-5 claims

Click here to see a list of Joe's publications and speeches.

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