Alan S. Naar

Partner, Vice Chair, Litigation Department
Chair, Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group
Member, Redevelopment Practice Group
Member, Technology Practice Group

Practice Focus

Mr. Naar concentrates in commercial litigation representing a variety of corporate, partnership, and individual clients.  He has been engaged in all aspects of civil litigation from the pre-commencement phase through the appeal process in both the federal and state courts.  His broad experience includes, but is not limited to, litigation in the following diverse areas:  corporate and partnership disputes, trademark and unfair trade practices, trade secrets, antitrust, business torts, RICO, professional malpractice, land use and redevelopment, and trust and estate litigation.

Representative Matters

• Mr. Naar, as counsel for Marty Richards, film and Broadway producer, was successful in establishing at the trial court, Appellate Division, and the New Jersey Supreme Court, that Mr. Richards, as a surviving spouse of Mary Lea Johnson Richards, one of J. Seward Johnson Sr.'s children listed in a 1961 Charitable Lead Trust, was a beneficiary of the Trust and entitled to distributions from the Trustees of the Trust.
• Mr. Naar has been involved in major product liability litigation in both the federal and state courts in New Jersey representing a major tobacco company and was on the trial team in Cipollone v. Liggett Group Inc., et al., a nationally reported product liability action commenced in the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey. 
• Mr. Naar has acted as New Jersey counsel for a number of international clients including, for example, the Republic of the Philippines in litigation against U.S. companies alleging fraud and bribery in connection with the awarding of contracts relating to the construction of the first nuclear power plant in the Philippines.  
• He has also been retained by a number of New York City and Washington, D.C. law firms to be New Jersey counsel for their clients because of his expertise in New Jersey federal and state court practice.

Professional Activities / Honors

• Listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the Commercial Litigation and Litigation: Labor & Employment categories.
• Listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in the Litigation: General Commercial practice area.
• Listed in Super Lawyers - New Jersey Edition in the Business Litigation category.
• Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rated AV® Preeminent.
• Appointed member of the first panel of certified mediators for the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey.
• Member of the panel of certified arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association.
• Member of the District V-C (Essex County-West Essex) Fee Arbitration Panel. 
• Board Member of Smart Litigator, an ALM website from the New Jersey Law Journal.
• Former Member of the Executive Committee of the Federal Practice and Procedure Committee of NJSBA.
• Trustee of the Association of the Federal Bar for the State of New Jersey.
• Recipient of a 2008 Burton Award for Legal Achievement for Writing.
• Former vice chair of the Product Liability Law Section of the Essex County Bar Association.
• Director of the Columbia Law School Alumni Association.

Publications / Articles / Presentations

• Interviewed for a special feature on the pros and cons of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in the September 2012 issue of New Jersey Business, a New Jersey Business and Industry Association publication.
• Author, "E-Discovery: A Fact of Life," Exhibit A, Fall 2010.
• Presenter, "Forming, Maintaining or Breaking Shareholder and Partnership Relationships in a Recession," Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP Webinar, June 23, 2009.
• Author of the chapter, "Understanding the Benefits and Risks of Alternative Dispute Resolution" in the Inside the Minds's series book Mediation and Arbitration Best Practices (Aspatore, 2007)
• Co-author, "The Revised Uniform Arbitration Act," Exhibit A, Fall 2003, Vol. 7, No. 3.
• Co-author, "U.S. Supreme Court Limits the Scope of Permissible Punitive Damages Awards," Exhibit A, Spring 2003, Vol. 7 No. 2.
• Co-author, "Recent New Jersey Supreme Court Decisions," Exhibit A, Fall 2002, Vol. 6, No. 3.
• Author, "Requests for Admissions: An Underutilized Litigation Tool," New Jersey Lawyer, the Magazine, December 2001.
• Co-author, "Best Practices: A Return to A Rule Based Court System" Exhibit A, Spring 2001: Vol. 5, No. 2.
• Co-author, "The Entire Controversy Doctrine," Exhibit A, Winter 1999, Vol. 3, No. 1.
• Author, "The Supreme Court Protects Free Speech on the Internet by Finding Provisions of the Communications Decency Act Unconstitutional," The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Vol. 5 No. 9 (1997).
• Author, " 'Indecent' and 'Patently Offensive' Under the Communications Decency Act of 1996," The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Vol. 4 No. 9, (1996).
• Co-author, "Applying the Attorney Client Privilege to In-House Counsel," The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Vol. 3 No. 11 (1995).
• Lectured on various litigation related topics.

Bar Admissions

• New Jersey, 1976
• U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, 1976
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, 1983
• U.S. Supreme Court, 1985
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, 2000
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 2006