ABOUT OUR MEDIATORS
BRUCE P. MATEZ, ESQ., APM
A partner at Weir, LLP in Mount Laurel, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bruce concentrates on divorce and family law mediation. While generally practicing facilitative mediation, he adapts his mediation style to the needs of mediating parties. He is a trained Collaborative Divorce professional, an approved R. 1:40 Post MESP Economic Mediator, a trained Parenting Coordinator, has been appointed by the court to serve as Guardian Ad Litem for children, and was designated as a Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Matrimonial Attorney from 2003-2023.
For over 30 years Bruce has been mediating divorce and family law disputes. Having practiced divorce and family law for 35 years, he now concentrates his practice on mediation and other methods of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Early in his career he recognized the limitations of the judicial system in helping divorcing couples and parents resolve disputes and the need to find alternative methods of dispute resolution, especially those involving children. He has mediated all types of family law matters including but not limited to complex divorces and high conflict custody, parenting time, and financial disputes. He has mediated close to 2000 divorce and family law disputes.
A proud founding member and current Master Emeritus of the Thomas S. Forkin Family Law American Inn of Court, Bruce served on its Executive Committee from 1997-2009. In June 2018, the Forkin Inn honored Bruce with the Honorable Joseph M. Nardi, Jr, Award, presented to a member of the South Jersey Family Law community whose commitment to the practice of law encourages and exemplifies civility, humility, compassion and a moral/ethical obligation to the welfare of children and families in general, and whose commitment is further evidenced by participation in continuing legal education, and a willingness to act as an advisor/mentor to others.
In 2022, the Justice Marie Garibaldi American Inn of Court for Alternative Dispute Resolution honored Bruce with the Richard Jeydel Award in recognition of his demonstrated civility, professionalism, ethics, and excellence in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). He is currently a member of that Inn of Court.
Bruce was the president of the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators (NJAPM) from 2021-2023. He is a member of the Academy of Professional Family Mediators, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, and was a founding member of the South Jersey Collaborative Law Group. He served on the Family Law Executive Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Family Law Section and is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, as well as the Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester County Bar Associations.
Bruce teaches Family Law Mediation at Rutgers Law School in Camden, sections of the NJAPM and the NJICLE 40-Hour Divorce Basic Mediation trainings for new mediators and is a frequent lecturer on divorce and family law mediation for various legal and non-legal organizations.
CARL B. VINIAR
Carl B. Viniar has been one of the most active mediators in South Jersey for more than 25 years, and was a practicing attorney for more than 35 years, He was a founder and member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of Professional Family Mediators. Although his primary emphasis has been family mediation, Mr. Viniar has also mediated and negotiated settlements in the fields of real estate, construction partnerships, employment and estates. Mr. Viniar taught mediation, negotiation and conflict resolution at Rutgers Law School and Business School for more than 20 years. He has trained hundreds of people to be mediators, and successfully worked with over 1000 couples.
Now he has embarked on another path along this journey, having been ordained as a Rabbinic Pastor through the Ordination Program of Aleph, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal. Jewish Renewal is a transdenominational movement. The Rabbinic Pastor Ordination is for clergy drawn to spiritual service primarily through pastoral care, ritual craft and holy accompaniment through life changes. His practice of premarital (and marital) mediation, discernment mediation (helping parties negotiate their next steps, before the final decision to divorce) and divorce mediation reflects his commitment to spiritual wholeness and healing.
GARY BORGER
Gary Borger practices divorce and family law mediation with the South Jersey Mediation Center and Weir, LLP. Gary developed a reputation as one of the most respected family law attorneys in South Jersey, having practiced divorce and family law since 1977. Throughout that time, Gary has represented both men and women in simple and complex divorces. He has over 47 years of experience, handling alimony, child support, child custody and parenting time (visitation) disputes, court applications for a parent to move out of state with the children, division of property and debt incident to divorce, including cases involving businesses and professional practices, applications to the court for protection from domestic violence and abuse as well as defense of domestic violence complaints, and prosecuting and defending civil tort (damage) claims by one spouse against the other. Gary also has substantial experience in negotiating and drafting pre-marital and cohabitation agreements as well as marital settlement agreements incident to separation and divorce.
Having been trained in mediation at Harvard Law School, and recognizing that contentious, litigated divorces benefit no one and is harmful to children, often causing more harm than good, Gary offers clients the option of mediating rather than litigating family law disputes. He has been approved by the Superior Court of New Jersey under New Jersey Court Rule 1:40 as a Post-ESP Economic Mediator. Gary has extensive experience mediating divorces and other family law disputes.
Gary is active in family law bar associations, both at the national, state, and county levels. He is a member of the American Bar Association, Family Law Section; the New Jersey Association for Justice (NJAJ) and its Matrimonial Committee; the Burlington and Gloucester County (NJ) Bar Associations and Family Law Bench-Bar Committees; and has been a volunteer on the Early Settlement Panels (ESP) of Burlington, Camden & Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland Counties. Gary also was a guest lecturer in family law for 15 years at his alma mater (the Temple Law School, now the James E. Beasley School of Law at Temple University) (J.D. 1976). Gary has been a presenter to lawyers at professional continuing education courses in family law conducted by the American Bar Association; the NJ Institute for Continuing Legal Education (ICLE); New Jersey Association for Justice (NJAJ); and The Sharper Lawyer; and has lectured to the South Jersey Psychological Association on the legal aspects of custody disputes involving psychological experts.
After serving in the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1971, Gary completed his undergraduate education as a 1972 graduate of Rutgers University (psychology major), and completed his legal education at Temple Law School in 1976. Gary then clerked for the Honorable Paul A. Lowengrub, Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey (now deceased), then sitting in the Matrimonial Division of the court in Camden County before entering the private practice of law in 1977.
Gary is a jazz fan and jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player and enjoys golf and riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle.
JEANNE COVERT
Jeanne T. Covert served for twenty years as a Judge in the Superior Court of New Jersey in Burlington County where she sat in the Family, Civil, and Criminal Divisions. She was elevated to leadership positions, where she served as the Presiding Judge of the Criminal Court in Burlington, and then was named Chair of all Presiding Judges in Criminal Courts statewide. After serving as the Presiding Judge of the Civil Division, in 2019 she was appointed as the Assignment Judge of Burlington County, the leader of Superior Court and all 40 Municipal Courts in Burlington County. She served as the Assignment Judge there until her retirement from the bench in 2025.
Judge Covert presided over dozens of affordable housing cases and conducted some of the rare trials in this unique area of law, receiving an affirmance on Appeal in a published decision in one of these cases. She also was a member of the statewide judicial committee on affordable housing and actively assisted the Administrative Office of the Courts in the development of affordable housing protocols and Orders. She handled every variety of civil dispute including prerogative writs and zoning matters as well as labor and employment and personal injury cases. Her position as the Assignment Judge also called for the management of multiple high profile and complex litigation matters.
During her tenure in Family Court, she presided over divorce cases, custody and parenting time matters, child support hearings, children in court cases (DCP&P, formerly DYFS), and all family law cases.
Judge Covert lives in Burlington County and graduated from Rutgers Law School in 1985, with highest honors in the study of Tort law. She was also a Moot Court Appellate Advocacy Finalist. Prior to that she attended the University of Delaware where she graduated in 1980 magna cum laude and phi beta kappa. Before taking the bench, she was an assistant prosecutor and a private criminal defense lawyer, as well as a municipal public defender in several towns; her practice focused exclusively on litigation.
Judge Covert, during her judicial tenure, served on over fifteen Supreme Court and Statewide administrative committees, including the Supreme Court Committee on Professionalism, Attorney Wellness, Criminal Justice Reform, and Judicial Salaries and Pensions. She was the Chairperson of the Recovery Court working group, the Search Warrant and Wiretap working group, as well as the Co-Chair of the committees on Jury Operations in the Courts, Landlord/Tenant and Job outreach. She was a member of the judicial committee on artificial intelligence and judicial security. She served on the Judicial Council, which is the leadership body for all Courts in New Jersey as well as on the subcommittees for Court labor relations, budgets, and operations.
She has lectured on all areas of the law within the judiciary including the civil case law update, the orientation of new judges, and judicial security, just to name a few. Every year she presents at the New Jersey State Bar Association annual meeting on the “Supreme Court year in review” along with three Supreme Court Justices and two other past and present Superior Court Judges. Finally, she is an active member of both the Burlington County Bar Association and the New Jersey State Bar Association.
Upon her retirement from the bench in 2025, Judge Covert became “of counsel” to Weir, LLP. She focuses her mediation practice to helping you find alternative solutions to litigation. With her deep well of experience in all aspects of the law and the court, she can assist you in coming to agreements that will satisfy all parties and avoid the time and expense of a protracted trial.
The following are some of the major areas of disputes which Judge Covert mediates:
Civil Disputes Family Disputes
Affordable Housing Divorce
Complex Case Management Custody and Parenting Time
General Civil matters Child Support
Zoning and Government Post-Divorce Disputes
Relocation
Grandparent Visitation