Kevin R. Gardner has been representing clients in the federal and state courts for more than twenty-five years in a variety of matters, including complex corporate, commercial, construction and transportation related litigation, class actions, product liability claims, employment restrictive covenant disputes, and trade secret litigation. Mr. Gardner has substantial experience handling crisis management issues for clients and coordinates the firm’s Emergency Response Team. 

Mr. Gardner has served as lead counsel for clients in connection with catastrophic losses and mass litigation, notably the Port Elizabeth Warehouse Fire, the Texas Eastern Pipeline Explosion, and the Seton Hall University dormitory fire. He has also represented clients and has served as court-appointed liaison counsel in mass product liability litigation.  

For 23 years, Mr. Gardner has been an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University School of Law, teaching Civil Litigation in the Federal and State Courts of New Jersey. He is also a faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Advocacy Program. He is a frequent lecturer on civil practice issues for the New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education and other organizations, including the Defense Research Institute (DRI).  

Mr. Gardner has served as a court-appointed mediator in more than 300 Superior Court cases pursuant to Rule 1:40. He has also served as an arbitrator by court appointment in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.  

By appointment of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Mr. Gardner has served six terms as a member of the Supreme Court’s Civil Practice Committee.  Since 2002, Mr. Gardner has been selected by his peers to be listed in The Best Lawyers in America (Commercial Litigation). He has also been elected by his peers to be a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America.

While attending Seton Hall University School of Law, Mr. Gardner served as Managing Editor of the Law Review and authored a Note, “Corporations-Mergers-Long Form Merger for Sole Purpose of Eliminating Minority Interest Constitutes Actionable Fiduciary Breach; Valid Merger Requires Showing of Business Purpose and Entire Fairness,” 8 Seton Hall Law Review 712 (1979). Upon graduation, he served as Law Clerk to Hon. Robert L. Clifford, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of New Jersey. Mr. Gardner joined Connell Foley LLP in 1980 and became a partner in 1987.