All posts by John Lande

Possible Federal Class Negotiation in Opioid Case

The ABA Journal reported that US District Judge Dan Polster is considering certifying a class action in the massive opioid case specifically for negotiation.   The class would consist of 33,000 cities, towns, and counties. The proposal could help protect against an unfair settlement that is reached by lawyers before approval by the class, proponents say.  … Continue reading Possible Federal Class Negotiation in Opioid Case

New Horizons for the ADR Field: Where Are We Headed, and Where Can We Go?

The following series of posts are in response to a request to separately post reactions to the Past-and-Future conference I previously posted.  Today I am posting summaries of programs at the conference.  Tomorrow I will post some reflections about the experience. This post is about a plenary program moderated by Noam Ebner with Ava Abramowitz, … Continue reading New Horizons for the ADR Field: Where Are We Headed, and Where Can We Go?

Technology’s Effect on How and What We Teach

This post is about a program at the Past-and-Future conference, featuring Erin Archerd, Alyson Carrel, Noam Ebner, as summarized by Rebekah Gordon, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. There’s this rumor going around that technology is here to stay.  This is the truth.  We can’t escape computers, phones, apps, webcams, and anything else somebody in … Continue reading Technology’s Effect on How and What We Teach

ADR and Access to Justice

This post is by Jackie Nolan-Haley, Fordham Law School, written shortly after the Past-and-Future conference. Four days have passed since the “Appreciating Our Legacy and Engaging the Future” conference at Pepperdine School of Law and I am still inspired by so much of what I heard from so many excellent speakers.  I hope that there … Continue reading ADR and Access to Justice

Integrating Adjunct Faculty

As part of the  conference, Appreciating our Legacy and Engaging the Future, at Pepperdine School of Law’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Ava Abramowitz (Moderator), Tracy Allen, Dwight Golann, and Brian Pappas presented a breakout session on “Integrating Adjunct Faculty.”  With a mixture of full time, adjunct faculty members, and Deans attending the session, everyone … Continue reading Integrating Adjunct Faculty

Update on Constructive Conflict Initiative

Heidi and Guy Burgess have done phenomenal work for a long time to develop resources about dealing with destructive intractable conflicts. They have expanded their project, which is called the Constructive Conflict Initiative.  They just posted an update, which describes an impressive range of activities including public education, the Beyond Intractability materials, networking, publicity, and … Continue reading Update on Constructive Conflict Initiative

Jackie Font-Guzmán Op-Ed on Democracy and Self-Government in Puerto Rico

TFOI Jacqueline Font-Guzmán wrote this op-ed column on democracy and self-government in Puerto Rico. She noted the publication of chat messages involving Governor Ricardo Rosselló which led to his resignation.  The messages “contained expletive attacks on the LGBTQ community, women, obese individuals, the 4,645 people who died as a result of Hurricane María, political opponents, … Continue reading Jackie Font-Guzmán Op-Ed on Democracy and Self-Government in Puerto Rico

Political De-Biasing

I was going to post the piece below riffing on Arthur C. Brooks’s column about de-polarizing political biases. And then came the Democratic presidential debates this week, which provided a glaring example of how political biases often are generated and spread.  This post uses these debates as an illustration of the process and then discusses … Continue reading Political De-Biasing

For Pragmatic Romanticism About ADR, Understanding Why the “Haves” Come Out Ahead

“Mediators equalize the power between the parties.”  Have you heard that claim? I used to hear it with some frequency, though (fortunately) not much lately. Considering this idea even for a nano-second, obviously it is wildly optimistically untrue as a generalization – and it doesn’t even make sense in individual cases. Some of the discussion … Continue reading For Pragmatic Romanticism About ADR, Understanding Why the “Haves” Come Out Ahead