Hon. Elizabeth Bonina (Ret.)

In 2020, the Honorable Elizabeth Bonina was voted the #1 Mediator and #1 Arbitrator in New York State by the New York Law Journal Best Of Survey. As a former Justice of the Supreme Court, Kings County,she facilitates the settlement of cases involving a range of areas of practice including personal injury, premises liability, labor law, sports and recreation, and employment law cases. More significantly, it is Judge Bonina’s skill as a mediator and arbitrator that makes her an effective neutral as she is known for her intelligence, determination, patience, and ability to get even the most complex, highly emotional and contentious cases resolved.

It is to her credit that she has been ranked #1 Arbitrator in the state four times in the last eight years and has been consistently voted a Top Ten Mediator by the New York legal community for the last 11 years.

Representative matters over which she presided while serving as a Justice of the Supreme Court include a complex multi-party commercial case involving the removal of the director of the board without cause, and the dissolution of the company including shareholder rights; a major class action law suit involving a class of employees who alleged unlawful deductions from their wages and a landlord tenant case involving an alleged invasion of privacy due to newly installed surveillance cameras.

Judge Bonina’s past judicial and administrative experience includes serving as a court examiner/referee pursuant to Article 81 of the Mental Hygiene Law in the Appellate Division, Second Department where she conducted hearings, received testimony and issued recommendations to the Supreme Court Justices presiding over IAS Part 76. In 1998, she was appointed to the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission as an Administrative Law Judge. During her tenure as an Administrative Law Judge, Judge Bonina went from conducting hearings and rendering decisions, to the Appeals Division where she conducted appellate review of ALJ decisions, to Assistant Chief Administrative Law Judge in charge of supervising all Judges at the various agency tribunals, to Chief Administrative Law Judge. She served at the Taxi & Limousine Commission for over four years until she was appointed by Governor George Pataki
as a Justice of the Supreme Court in the Second Judicial District.

Additionally, as an adjunct professor for St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, New York for the past 15 years, Judge Bonina teaches undergraduate courses in Business Law, Sports Law and Sports and Recreation Law.

Since joining our panel, Judge Bonina has both mediated and arbitrated a wide variety of cases including labor law, employment, and personal injury cases with complex coverage issues.