Kenneth Feinberg, one of the United States’ leading experts in mediation and alternative dispute resolution, is the keynote speaker for the Arbitrators’ and Mediators Institute of New Zealand (AMINZ) annual conference in Christchurch in early August.
Mr Feinberg served as the Special Master of the US government’s September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, a role in which he served pro bono for almost three years.
He was appointed by the Obama Administration to serve as administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility to compensate victims of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. He also served as administrator of the Aurora Victim Relief Fund following the Aurora, Colorado, shootings in 2012 as well as administrator of the Virginia Tech Hokey Spirit Memorial Fund in 2007.
Most recently, Mr Feinberg served as administrator of the One Fund Boston Victim Relief Fund, established to benefit the victims of the Boston Marathon attacks of 15 April, 2013.
He served as assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1972 to 1975; special counsel for US Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 1975 to 1980; chief of staff to Senator Edward Kennedy from 1978 to 1980; and founder of The Feinberg Group in 1993.
He has served as adjunct professor of law at Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School, University of Pennsylvania School of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, New York University School of Law, the University of Virginia School of Law, and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.