For over 40 years, Ms. Klibanow has focused her prac­tice in the field of labor and employ­ment law. At dif­fer­ent times in her career she has rep­re­sent­ed both man­age­ment and labor, both defense and plain­tiff, and for over 20 years has served as a labor and employment ​“neu­tral” – as an arbi­tra­tor, hear­ing offi­cer, dis­cov­ery ref­er­ee, medi­a­tor and neu­tral factfinder.

From her expe­ri­ence both as an advo­cate and also as a neu­tral she is expert in all of the prac­tice areas ref­er­enced below and also is avail­able to serve in inter­na­tion­al dis­pute res­o­lu­tion mat­ters, includ­ing com­mer­cial con­tracts, and also as civ­il dis­cov­ery referee.

Hav­ing encoun­tered near­ly every con­ceiv­able chal­lenge to effec­tive process in arbi­tra­tion, Ms. Klibanow pre­emp­tive­ly reme­di­ates against these and, cau­tion­ing coun­sel against ​“games­man­ship” or ​“sharp prac­tices,” main­tains focus on the sub­stan­tive issues.

In her con­duct of employ­ment arbi­tra­tions, front and cen­ter is Klibanow’s con­cern that arbi­tra­tion be a ​“dif­fer­ent but not infe­ri­or” forum for res­o­lu­tion of the full span of rights and reme­dies afford­ed to employ­ees and affir­ma­tive defens­es afford­ed to employ­ers on such crit­i­cal mat­ters as employ­ment civ­il rights, i.e., pro­tec­tion of employ­ees against discrimination/​harassment/​retaliation based on such ​“pro­tect­ed” cat­e­gories as sex, gen­der, sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, race, nation­al ori­gin, reli­gion, age, dis­abil­i­ty, med­ical con­di­tion, and also basic wage & hour statu­to­ry compliance.

Among par­tic­u­lar ben­e­fits of such near­ly 45-year spe­cial­iza­tion is appre­ci­a­tion of law’s evo­lu­tion in its myr­i­ad facets and his­tor­i­cal con­texts. Such long-time research, analy­sis and prac­tice improve com­pre­hen­sion not only of the ​“let­ter and spir­it” of the statutes, reg­u­la­tions and judi­cial prece­dents at issue, but also dis­cern­ment of the ​“mor­ph­ing” of law in its accom­mo­da­tions of ten­sions among com­pet­ing pub­lic poli­cies and polit­i­cal inter­ests. Such exper­tise has gar­nered her keen insight and gen­er­at­ed user com­ments as ​“stand­ing out in the top 1% of all neu­trals” and of skills and abil­i­ties ​“greater than any judi­cial offi­cer or neu­tral that I have appeared before in my 30-plus year career.”

In both medi­a­tions and arbi­tra­tions, Ms. Klibanow is known for ask­ing coun­sel ​“thought-pro­vok­ing ques­tions” and in hav­ing the sub­stan­tive knowl­edge to ​“cut right to the chase” of the matter. 

Klibanow is known for her painstak­ing atten­tion to detail in review of tran­scripts and exhibits and con­sci­en­tious appli­ca­tion of the law.