The International Ombudsman Association has announced its first student writing competition, inviting law students and other graduate students to submit articles arguing for a statutory privilege for organizational ombudsmen.  More information can be found here. For a short preview, here’s the call of the question: For this article, assume that you are advising the legislature … Continue reading International Ombudsman Association Writing Competition →

An article in the most recent ABA Journal entitled “Where the Work Is” (here) listed ADR as one of the subfields of law where there are likely to be jobs during the current economic downturn.  The article states that legal services consumers are seeking to avoid litigation costs and concludes that has been a boon … Continue reading Where the Work Is →

The AALS Placement Bulletin, which provides the hiring announcements for all the law schools across the country, is hot off the presses.  Based on a quick review of the bulletin last night and requests I’ve received for names of candidates, the market for ADR law profs looks pretty good this year.  If anyone knows of … Continue reading Which Law Schools are Looking to Hire ADR Profs ? →

Andy Schepard of Hofstra Law School sent the following message to the ADR list-serv earlier this month.  A pdf of the UCLA appears here. ——– Dear ADR colleagues: I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. I am pleased to report that he Uniform Law Commission voted to adopt the Uniform Collaborative Law Act on … Continue reading Uniform Collaborative Law Act – Adoption and Upcoming Conference →

As many readers of this blog already know, foreclosure mediation is booming across the country.  Many states with judicial foreclosure procedures (as opposed to non-judicial foreclosure states) are requiring mediation before any hearings on the foreclosure process.  Add Florida with its strong ADR practices to the list.  The Florida Supreme Court’s residential-foreclosure task force is … Continue reading Mandatory Mediation in Florida Home Foreclosures →

The Summer edition of Dispute Resolution Magazine runs an article by Diane Levin (a familiar name to those in the online ADR community because she is the brain behind adrblogs.com).  Likening us to 18th century English coffehouses (where is my double-shot latte, by the way?), Diane thoughtfully describes the blog phenomenon in a way that … Continue reading ADR Blogging Makes an Appearance in Print →

Geoff Sharp, whose Mediatorblahblah blog was one of the only things I read with regularity, announced a few days ago that he is bowing out.  We as a field are poorer for his departure, but we should all be grateful to him for his thoughtful, self-confessedly “overly opinionated” contributions. With more than a thousands posts … Continue reading Geoff Sharp, Mediatorblahblah, “Bows Out” of blogging →

Hofstra Law School will hold a conference on “Collaborative Law: Opportunities, Challenges and Questions for the Future” on November 19 and 20, 2009. The conference announcement states: “The conference will cover topics in Collaborative Law in the context of legal ethics and professional responsibility, mediation, arbitration and other ADR processes, access to justice and vulnerable … Continue reading Collaborative Law Conference and Call for Papers →

Today is the first day of training this semester’s crop of students in the Lodestar Mediation Clinic at ASU.  It’s a day filled with excitement and questions for both the students and myself.  From the teaching side, some of the questions remain the same.  What will the personality of the class be?  Will we have … Continue reading Game On !! →

The deadline for submitting a proposal to present at the ABA’s Dispute Resolution Section’s Annual Meeting is 10 days away – August 24th.  The Section is always looking for good programs, so don’t be shy in submitting one.  The meeting is scheduled for April 2010 in San Francisco.  A copy of the Call for Proposals … Continue reading Upcoming Deadline – ABA DR Section Conference Call for Proposals →