Robert Adams, Esq.

Robert Adams, Esq. has been committed to the practice of law for over twenty-five years with a long and distinguished career in the legal profession. Prior to becoming a full-time mediator and arbitrator with NAM, Mr. Adams was a well-known and highly respected Senior Vice President of Risk Management with Tishman Construction Corporation and its international parent company, AECOM. In this role, he was responsible for managing all aspects of litigation nationwide, from inception through trial, including but not limited to, matters involving the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site.

Mr. Adams has overseen highly complex cases with exposure well into the six and seven figure range. In addition to the aforementioned, he also traveled around the country to mediate cases on behalf of Tishman Hotel Corp. Robert Adams has mediated cases in Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, as well as numerous states in the northeastern United States. This experience has allowed him to develop an expertise in navigating the complex insurance issues concerning priority of coverage (vertical vs. horizontal exhaustion of primary policies) which often presents a major hurdle to resolving high exposure cases. As part of his responsibilities for litigation management and risk management at Tishman Construction Corporation, Mr. Adams developed a depth of knowledge involving key areas of civil engineering.

A testament to his reputation within the field of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), Mr. Adams was voted a Top 3 Mediator by the 2018 Corporate Counsel Annual Best of Survey and a Top 3 Mediator in the United States by the National Law Journal Reader Rankings Survey (2017, 2014). He was also voted one of the Top Ten Mediators in New York State for the sixth year in a row by the 2016 New York Law Journal Reader Rankings Survey. Additionally, he was named a National Law Journal 2016 Alternative Dispute Resolution Champion, as part of a select group of only 48 nationwide. Mr. Adams was also voted a Top 5 International Mediator in the New York Law Journal Survey in 2012, the only year the category was ranked.

Prior to joining Tishman Construction Corp., Robert Adams was a senior equity partner at the national law firm of Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman and Dicker. In this capacity he managed a varied international practice wherein he represented clients in fields such as construction, product liability, entertainment, premises liability, appellate practice and insurance coverage disputes. As a litigator, he developed an affinity towards ADR, and counseled his broad clientele to consider this mechanism as a means towards finalizing time consuming and costly litigation.

Mr. Adams has participated on several occasions in the FERMA (Federation of European Risk Management Association) conference in Europe. Having lived in France for several years while playing professional basketball following his undergraduate career at Colgate University, he is fluent in the French language and subsequently did a great deal of work in the French market.

He has also been a featured speaker about crisis management at the most prominent construction conference in the United States, the IRMI Conference. Robert Adams also has a very unique avocation. He is a nationally recognized NCAA Division I men’s basketball official. He has been selected to referee in eight NCAA Division I tournaments (96 officials in the country are selected each year) and has officiated the NIT championship game in the past. In 2010, he was chosen to officiate the nationally televised game in Madison Square Garden between eventual national champion Duke and top ten ranked Gonzaga.

Mr. Adams’ integrity and legal acumen has permitted him to gain the respect and confidence of both the plaintiff and defense bars. His vast knowledge and experience, as well as his longtime support of alternative dispute resolution, makes him an exceptionally well-rounded and effective full-time mediator.