All posts by John Lande

Charlie Irvine’s Challenge to Mediators to Describe Your Mediation System

Charlie Irvine is the Course Leader on the University of Strathclyde’s (Scotland) MSc/LLM in Mediation and Conflict Resolution and the Director of the Strathclyde Mediation Clinic.  The Clinic provides a free mediation service in which experienced practitioners work alongside trainee mediators to help people resolve disputes without going to court or tribunal. The following is … Continue reading Charlie Irvine’s Challenge to Mediators to Describe Your Mediation System →

How Can Courts – Practically for Free – Help Parties Prepare for Mediation Sessions?

If there’s anything approaching unanimity in our field, it’s that it’s important to prepare in dispute resolution processes like mediation. So it’s almost boring to write about it.  But I found some things that should be interesting and helpful for parties, practitioners, and mediation program administrators. Last December, I wrote a short article, The Critical … Continue reading How Can Courts – Practically for Free – Help Parties Prepare for Mediation Sessions? →

Teaching Students How Practitioners Really Think and Act

How cool would it be for your students to interview lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, or other practitioners about how they really think and act in their work? Practitioners generally develop their own categories of routine and challenging situations in their work, and they develop regular practices and strategies for dealing with them.  In mediation, this involves … Continue reading Teaching Students How Practitioners Really Think and Act →

WIP Conference Deadline is Extended Until August 4

This year’s AALS ADR Section Works-in-Progress Conference will be held on Friday and Saturday, October 13 and 14 at Quinnipiac and Yale. The deadline for submitting proposals has been extended until Friday, August 4, at midnight Eastern Time. The conference will have a hybrid format, with some presentations in person and some by video. The … Continue reading WIP Conference Deadline is Extended Until August 4 →

Elayne Greenberg: “High Anxiety: Racism, the Law, and Legal Education”

Elayne Greenberg published an article in the Washington & Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice that is very timely:  High Anxiety: Racism, the Law, and Legal Education.  Here’s the abstract: Conspicuously absent from the United States’ ongoing discourse about its racist history is a more honest discussion about the individual and personal stressors … Continue reading Elayne Greenberg: “High Anxiety: Racism, the Law, and Legal Education” →

Party Self-Empowerment from Preparation for Mediation Sessions

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In The Critical Importance of Pre-Session Preparation in Mediation, I explained why parties’ preparation for their mediation sessions can produce many significant benefits.  This post suggests that preparation before mediation sessions is an important opportunity for parties to empower themselves. People have used the concept of “empowerment” in mediation in various ways, as I described … Continue reading Party Self-Empowerment from Preparation for Mediation Sessions →

ADR and Labor & Employment Law Resources

From my colleague, Rafael Gely: As you begin to prepare your courses for the next academic year, the National Academy of Arbitrators’ Research and Education Foundation (REF), an organization that provides funding that promotes research, publications, and education that contribute to the field of labor and employment arbitration, wanted to share with you the following … Continue reading ADR and Labor & Employment Law Resources →

Len Riskin Pulls It All Together in Managing Conflict Mindfully

I had the good fortune to be Len Riskin’s colleague from 2000, when I arrived in Missouri, until he moved to the University of Florida in 2007. He now is a Visiting Professor of Law and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center on Negotiation, Mediation, and Restorative Justice at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law … Continue reading Len Riskin Pulls It All Together in Managing Conflict Mindfully →

What We Do Is So Important

My colleague, Ilhyung Lee, pointed me to another graduation speech highlighting the importance of generally listening respectfully to and engaging with people we disagree with.  He sent me a link to a speech by University of Chicago Law Professor Tom Ginsburg, entitled “Conversation and Democracy.”  I had cited Bret Stephen’s speech and Jen Reynolds linked … Continue reading What We Do Is So Important →

Go Forth and Argue

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New York Times columnist Bret Stephens was the commencement speaker at the University of Chicago, and he published his speech, Go Forth and Argue. Arguing may seem like the antithesis of negotiation and mediation.  But it’s not – at least not if we sincerely listen to others with differing views, are open to reconsidering our … Continue reading Go Forth and Argue →