Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman died on March 27. He and his colleague, Amos Tversky, published foundational studies in behavioral economics demonstrating that people inevitably have numerous cognitive biases. They upended dominant theories that people simply act rationally to carefully maximize their self-interest. In our dispute resolution field, we rely on their insights to help people … Continue reading Daniel Kahneman
I am very honored to receive the ABA Dispute Resolution Section’s award for outstanding scholarly work this year – and all the congratulations from friends and colleagues in our field. It is particularly flattering considering the great number of folks in our community who deserve recognition for their valuable scholarship and other important work. This … Continue reading My Appreciation – Part 1
“The Washington Supreme Court has adopted alternative pathways to a law license, becoming the second state to do so in a little more than four months,” according to this ABA Journal article. The Court approved three ways to bypass a bar exam in Washington state, with different standards for law school graduates, law students and … Continue reading Washington State Follows Oregon and Wisconsin by Approving Alternatives to Bar Exam
The International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (aka CPR) recently announced the appointment of Serena K. Lee as its president & CEO, effective April 1. Here’s information about her from CPR’s press release. Serena Lee has extensive ADR experience. She received her JD from Cardozo, where she received a mediation certificate from the Kukin … Continue reading The Lee Era
From Sharon Press and Noam Ebner: Dear Colleagues We are pleased to announce that the Resource Share will take place on Friday, April 12 from 4:30 – 5:30 pm at the Section of Dispute Resolution Conference in San Diego. We are looking forward to seeing everyone and sharing resources! For those of you who are … Continue reading Annual Resource Share at ABA Conference
Helping You Do the Best Mediation You Can is Part 2 of a two-part series presenting action research about factors affecting mediators’ individual practice systems and how they can improve their systems. Part 1 describes a study of mediators at well-received educational programs to help them learn why they developed their particular practice systems and … Continue reading Helping Mediators Do the Best Mediation They Can
Psychologist Kenneth Kressel argued that mediators’ mental models of mediation are largely unconscious mixtures of formal models and “personal ‘mini-theories’ of conflict and role of mediators.” He defined mental schemas or models as “ideas the mediator holds about the role of the mediator; the goals to be attained (and avoided), and the interventions that are … Continue reading Why Do Mediators Mediate the Way They Do?
It’s not exactly breaking news that a major function of American law schools is to train an upper stratum of students for jobs as associates in elite law firms and as judicial clerks. Parsing appellate case opinions and ace-ing closed-book exams are tasks especially well designed for this purpose. Although these activities reflect some important … Continue reading Law Students Can Use Portfolios to Plan Their Practice Systems
On the AALS listserv, Gabe Teninbaum (Suffolk) asked, “[H]ow do we teach students to define successful outcomes in a given scenario? And how do we help them understand how to communicate with clients about defining their own success? As a former litigator, I remember balancing clients’ varied goals (their definition of “winning” didn’t always comport … Continue reading Helping Law Students Define and Pursue Success
So far, my pieces in the Real Practice Systems Project have focused on mediation. The theory is not limited to mediation, and this post applies it to lawyering. In the mediation context, the theory argues that mediators have unique practice systems that grow out of their personal histories, values, goals, motivations, knowledge, and skills as … Continue reading Real Lawyering Practice Systems
