This part of the symposium includes several pieces focusing on key skills in legal and dispute resolution practice. Lisa Amsler highlights the importance of interpersonal and process skills as technology is radically changing legal practice. Russ Bleemer identifies deficiencies in mediators’ listening behaviors as mediation practice becomes routinized, and he encourages mediators to keep focusing … Continue reading Theory of Change Symposium – Part 4
I invite you to participate in Theory-of-Change blog symposium. I recently posted pieces listing various goals that people in our community have had, strategies that some have used, and reflections on the process of considering these issues for our field. I invited academics, practitioners, administrators, and researchers, among others, in the US and other countries … Continue reading Invitation to Participate in the Theory-of-Change Blog Symposium
This week, I posted pieces listing various goals that people in our community have had, strategies that some have used, and guidance about writing pieces for the symposium. I was inspired to write the posts after this summer’s Past-and-Future conference. In two full days at the conference with an amazing cast of presenters, we could … Continue reading Reflections on Our Field and Possibilities for Improvement
Part 1 of this series provided a long list of goals of people in our community. This post provides a non-exhaustive list of some of the many strategies that we have used to advance these goals. In developing realistic theories of change, it is important to consider contextual factors that may affect one’s efforts. This … Continue reading What’s Your Theory of Change for Dispute Resolution? – Part 2
Isn’t there a better way? Those words of former Chief Justice Warren Burger reflect the aspirations of our community for innovation and improvement of traditional processes of dispute resolution. Although he was not generally lauded for his jurisprudence, people in our field remember his early support for our ideas. In a 1982 speech to the … Continue reading What’s Your Theory of Change for Dispute Resolution? – Part 1
This post is by Andrew Mamo, a lecturer and clinical instructor at Harvard Law School with his reflections about the Past-and-Future conference. My thanks to the organizers and participants at the “Appreciating our Legacy and Engaging the Future” conference. It was a tremendous gathering of so many individuals in our field — from those who … Continue reading Appreciating Our Legacy in Two Ways
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?
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
“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
This post includes a variety of reflections from the Appreciating our Legacy and Engaging the Future conference in June. The conference was co-sponsored by the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, and the Aggie Dispute Resolution Program, Texas A&M University School of Law in cooperation with a ton of law school … Continue reading Reflections from the Past-and-Future Conference
I love the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution annual conferences. They always put on a wide array of wonderful sessions and it’s a great time to connect with friends, old and new. As in the past, I am listing some sessions that particularly intrigue me. This reflects my idiosyncratic tastes and it would be a … Continue reading ABA Conference Sessions You Might Enjoy
I had the good fortune to be one of Marc Galanter’s students when I was in graduate school. As one of his former students, I was invited to contribute to a symposium honoring his work and I wrote this appreciation of his scholarship. I suspect that many of us in the dispute resolution community aren’t … Continue reading For Pragmatic Romanticism