David White (Seton Hall) was recently named Clinical Professor of the Year at Seton Hall (announcement here) and also accepted a civilian appointment to NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s “Reengineering 2014” team.  The group will critically examine many facets of the NYPD’s day-to-day operations and offer recommendations for process re-design. Bravo David! MM

Have your students ever played an April Fool’s Day prank on you?  I’ve been lucky, but Stephen Barrows at Aquinas College, is not so lucky.  His students pulled one for the ages on him based on his class cell phone policy – if the phone rings you have to answer it on speaker phone.  This … Continue reading An Awesome April Fool’s Prank →

Last week was the whirlwind ABA Section on Dispute Resolution annual conference in Miami. At the conference, I presented an exercise in “critical patience” designed to promote the kind of deep attention and focus that law school and dispute resolution practice require–and that, so often, excessive technology use (skimming, surfing) can degrade. Here was my … Continue reading Followup from ABA Conference: Critical patience and pedagogy →

At a gathering of negotiation teachers held at Marquette late last year, we conducted an exercise which demonstrated wonderfully many different outlooks on negotiation, in a short time and a creative way. We asked all participants to write out their own definition of negotiation effectiveness – in the form of a recipe, relating to ingredients … Continue reading Just what we’ve all been waiting for: A negotiation cookbook! →

Last week, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided two issues important in the field of securities arbitration — one of which I believe flatly ignores the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by Dodd-Frank. The case, Goldman, Sachs & Co. v. City of Reno, __ F.3d __, 2014 WL 1272784 (9th … Continue reading Ninth Circuit, FINRA Arbitration and Exchange Act Commands →

Congratulations to students Alden Anderson and Chelsea Hesla from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, who won the 2014 American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution Representation in Mediation Competition.  The National Finals took place this past week at the Section’s Annual Conference in Miami. As the ABA reported, over 100 … Continue reading Arizona State Law Wins ABA Representation in Mediation Competition →

For those law school ADR Evangelists looking for opportunities to woo colleagues from other doctrinal disciplines, the Anadarko / Kerr-McGee settlement yesterday should have you scrambling to talk with your faculty colleagues in Environmental Law and in Bankruptcy. My short (and admittedly potentially still not as well-informed as it should be) version is this: Kerr-McGee, … Continue reading $5.15B Environmental Settlement in Anadarko / Kerr-McGee →

The AALS Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution is delighted to announce that Southwestern Law School will host the Eighth Annual ADR Section Works-in-Progress conference. The conference will take place at Southwestern’s campus in Los Angeles on Friday, November 7 and Saturday, November 8, with a welcoming reception on Thursday night, November 6 for early arrivals. Details about conference registration and … Continue reading Works in Progress Conference – Save the Date →

Adam Zimmerman has been doing ground-breaking work on mass settlements for several years now, and he has two new articles, one done with Dana Remus, that extend those investigations into new areas. The first is titled Presidential Settlements, 163 U. Pa. L. Rev. _ (forthcoming 2015) (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2414748). Here’s the abstract: Large groups repeatedly turn to the … Continue reading Zimmerman & Remus on Mass Settlements →

It’s the season of student writing competitions, so I thought I would collect information here for those with students writing papers on ADR topics this spring. I’m aware of the following two competitions specifically devoted to ADR. Please feel free to add any I’ve missed in the comments. ACR Student Writing Competition. Papers must be … Continue reading ADR Writing Competitions →