After 15 years as a U.S. magistrate judge for the District of New Jersey, Douglas Arpert has hung up his robe to join a law firm’s alternate dispute resolution practice.

Arpert has joined Walsh Pizzi O’Reilly Falanga of Newark, where he plans to offer his services in mediation, arbitration and special master appointments. At the firm, where he will be counsel, he is teaming up with a longtime colleague and friend, former U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Falk, to staff the firm’s ADR practice.