Any Star Wars fans out there? At the recent AALS ADR WIP conference, Noam Ebner (Creighton) and I unveiled our new project — an edited collection of essays tentatively titled Star Wars and Conflict Resolution. We are in the call for proposals stage, seeking 300-word proposals for short chapters (4000-5000 words). We plan to build … Continue reading Call for Proposals →

Scott Hechinger, attorney and policy director for the Brooklyn Defender Services, has a fascinating op-ed in today’s New York Times, calling for the end of mandatory minimums. He argues that one of the problems with mandatory minimums is that they make police misconduct more difficult to manage. From the perspective of negotiation, mandatory minimums represent … Continue reading Mandatory Minimums and Plea Bargaining →

Peter Boghossian (Portland State) has posted three short videos in the New York Times on disagreeing better. He is co-author of How to Have Impossible Conversations, which I am going to check out now. I liked these videos because they provide examples the kinds of micro-moves that are so important for navigating difficult conversations today. … Continue reading Boghossian on Disagreeing Better →

Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a revised rule (the 2019 Final Rule) removing the prohibition in the 2016 Rule on pre-dispute arbitration agreements for long-term healthcare facilities but keeping provisions from the 2016 rule “banning facilities from requiring that residents sign arbitration agreements as a condition of admission to … Continue reading Long-Term Healthcare Arbitration Update →

From FOI Noam Ebner (Creighton), a wonderful and thought-provoking essay on preparing our students for practice in the technological era, describing work he has been doing with Alyson Carrel, Erin Archerd, and others: No, mediation jobs are not going to be taken over by robots. I though I’d foreshadow this important point, as any discussion … Continue reading Ebner on the New Mediation Syllabus →

David Larson (Mitchell Hamline) has published “Designing and Implementing a State Court ODR System: From Disappointment to Celebration” in the Journal of Dispute Resolution. The article is also available on SSRN. The abstract: For the past two and one-third years I have had the pleasure of working with the New York State Unified Court System … Continue reading Larson on Designing State Court ODR →

From FOI Lydia Nussbaum (UNLV): Join us for the 13th Annual AALS ADR Section Works-in-Progress Conference in Las Vegas, NV! The conference takes place from October 3-5, 2019, at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law & the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution. Click here for the conference website and registration information. Important Dates … Continue reading Register Now for the WIP →

What was the best moment of your life, when it comes to ADR? I just read this collection in the Guardian of the best moment of people’s lives and felt inspired to think about happy times. For me, one of the best ADR moments of my life happened when I was mediating a business dispute. … Continue reading The Best Moment of Your (ADR) Life →

From FOI Tracy Blanchard: The Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program recently launched Thanks for Listening, a podcast that strives to bridge the political divide through dialogue. You can listen to the episode here. From the description: What would happen if people learned to flex their “dialogue muscles” at a very young age? What if, … Continue reading Thanks for Listening, episode 2 →

From FOI Alyson Carrel: Check out Amazon’s new system for resolving patent infringement disputes. According to the article: For a $4,000 deposit, the program will match a seller claiming infringement and the accused merchant with a neutral, third-party lawyer. If the accused party doesn’t respond to claims that it violated the seller’s utility patent — … Continue reading Amazon Patent DSD →

This week’s New Yorker has a great article on Ken Feinberg’s work helping the Catholic Church manage its sexual abuse crisis. Feinberg and Camille Biros created and run the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP), which processes claims of sexual abuse by priests. The IRCP started in New York in 2016 and other dioceses from … Continue reading DSD and the Catholic Church →

Interesting addition to our ongoing discussion about apologies: Check out this TedTalk about how women overapologize, and how too many “I’m sorrys” can relate to or exacerbate problems with confidence, participation, and voice. Canadian sociologist Maja Jovanovic starts with a fascinating story about women academics at a conference downplaying their own expertise. From this writeup: … Continue reading Women Saying Sorry →