Law Commons^™

Alternative Dispute Resolution In Montana: A Catalog Of The Local Rules In Montana District Courts, Brianna Anderson, Brock Flynn

Student Scholarship

A catalog of the Local ADR Rules for the Montana Judicial District Courts, including rules about settlement conferences, mediation, and informal domestic relations trials.

Real Practice Systems Annotated Bibliography, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Real Practice Systems (RPS) theory holds that practitioners’ practice systems are based on their personal histories, values, goals, motivations, knowledge, and skills as well as the parties and the cases in their work. RPS analysis can be used in many dispute resolution roles such as mediator, advocate in mediation, negotiator, and litigator generally. In mediation, practitioners develop categories of cases, parties, and behavior patterns that lead them to design routine procedures and strategies for dealing with recurring challenges before, during, and after mediation sessions.

RPS theory is the culmination of much of the work in my scholarly career. The bibliography …

Law Students Can Use Portfolios To Plan Their Practice Systems, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes how law schools can help students plan for successful careers by using Real Practice System self-assessments to guide them in developing individualized portfolios. Portfolios identify students’ learning objectives and experiences designed to achieve them. Portfolios may include a variety of elements such as writing samples, video recordings, grades, faculty evaluations, clinical course journals, and extracurricular experiences.

Helping Law Students Define And Pursue Success, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post collects prior posts about how to help law students define and pursue professional success.

Increasing Housing Stability Through State-Funded Community Mediation Delivered By The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (Hmp) Fy2023 Evaluation Report, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Karina Zeferino

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (HMP) is a comprehensive statewide program that provides free housing mediation services as a tool to increase housing stability with the intention of preventing homelessness created by landlord-tenant disputes. It is administered by the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston and deploys the community mediation system infrastructure with 11 Community Mediation Centers (Centers) participating and serving all 14 counties of the Commonwealth to provide free conflict resolution services for tenants and landlords/property managers with housing disputes at any stage, from the earliest point a problem occurs, up to, and …

Real Lawyering Practice Systems, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

Most of the pieces in the RPS Project have focused on mediation. The theory is not limited to mediation, and this post applies it to lawyering.

Technology In Real Practice Systems, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post uses the RPS mediation checklists to illustrate practitioners’ great reliance on technology.

Intimate Partner Violence And Family Dispute Resolution – Coercion, Capacity, And Control, Kelly Browe Olson

Faculty Scholarship

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the most complex issues that family dispute resolution (FDR) professionals encounter. Over one-third of women and one-quarter of men in the United States have experienced physical violence, rape, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime (Black et al., 2011), and a majority of separation- and divorce-related cases involve IPV allegations (Ballard et al., 2011; Beck et al., 2010; Belzer, 2003). IPV often escalates, and is most dangerous, during and after separation and creates unique challenges for mediation and other collaborative processes (Beck & Raghaven, 2010; Kelly & Johnson, 2008). Therefore, all …

Massachusetts Community Mediation Center Grant Program (Cmc-Gp) Fiscal Year 2023 Report And Evaluation, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Karina Zeferino

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts (MA) continued its investment in affordable, cost-effective community mediation by appropriating $2,713,465 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 for the Community Mediation Center Grant Program (CMC Grant Program or Program), the Program’s eleventh year. This appropriation funded the continued operations of qualified Community Mediation Centers (Centers) that deliver free or low-cost dispute resolution services to the public. The Centers serve as the backbone of mediation across the state and are the publicly funded infrastructure on which statewide dispute resolution programs are built.

The FY2023 state funding in the CMC Grant Program budget appropriation …

Randy Kiser’S New Book On Professional Judgment For Lawyers, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes Randall Kiser’s book, Professional Judgment for Lawyers. He defines professional judgment as “the deliberate synthesis of an attorney’s knowledge, experience, skills, discernment, and character to ethically advance a client’s interest.” The book combines empirical research, cognitive and social psychology, organizational behavior, legal ethics, and neuroscience to improve decision-making by attorneys, clients, judges, arbitrators, mediators, and juries.

Easy As Pi, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post presents some interactions with Pi, an AI system that is more conversational than others. It illustrates that, in the foreseeable future, AI systems almost certainly will become a lot more sophisticated and be incorporated into much of our lives, often in ways we will not notice

Addressing Barriers To Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Massachusetts Community Mediation, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Shino Yokotsuka, Karina Zeferino, Jarling Ho

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

This report presents over three years of systematically engaging, documenting and analyzing the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) needs/gaps and assets of state funded community mediation centers in Massachusetts. The report was compiled by researchers and an in-house DEI expert at the statutory state office of dispute resolution, the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The office has been serving as a neutral forum and state-level resource for over 30 years.

The report is based on qualitative research that falls into the category of community based participatory research conducted through a series of community …

Training Your Mediator Bot, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This somewhat tongue-in-cheek post discusses biases in AI systems. Noting that AI bots need to be “trained,” this post suggests that untrained mediator bots may spew out unwanted interventions such as providing undesired evaluations of BATNA values – or failing to provide desired evaluations. So mediators probably will need to co-mediate with their bots for a while to observe and correct its biases. Ironically, bots may produce language that normal humans understand much better than the confusing jargon we habitually use. So the mediator bots may need to train human mediators.

Teaching Students To Focus On Party Decision-Making, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes why law schools don’t teach students very much about helping clients make decisions and suggests techniques for doing so. It suggests (1) focusing on parties’ roles throughout relevant courses, (2) including meaningful party roles in simulations and competitions, (3) using simulations focusing solely on preparation, (4) using multi-stage simulations, (5) helping students focus on parties’ intangible interests in simulations and Stone Soup interviews, (6) using the terms “pre-mediation-session” or “before mediation sessions,” (7) taking advantage of the litigation interest and risk assessment framework and materials, and (8) recommending that schools offer a course on strategic case evaluation …

Addressing Barriers To Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Massachusetts Community Mediation, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Jarling Ho, Shino Yokotsuka, Karina Zeferino

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

This report presents over three years of systematically engaging, documenting and analyzing the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) needs/gaps and assets of state funded community mediation centers in Massachusetts. The report was compiled by researchers and an in-house DEI expert at the statutory state office of dispute resolution, the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The office has been serving as a neutral forum and state-level resource for over 30 years.

The report is based on qualitative research that falls into the category of community based participatory research conducted through a series of community …

Focus On Party Decision-Making, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

A major motivation in the modern dispute resolution movement has been to increase and improve parties’ decision-making in their legal disputes. Parties can participate more effectively in negotiation and mediation if they engage in decision-making early in disputes. This suggests the importance of good preparation before negotiation and mediation sessions. When parties are well-prepared in advance, they are as knowledgeable, confident, and assertive as possible in making decisions in their cases

Charlie Irvine's Challenge To Mediators To Describe Your Mediation System, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

Charlie Irvine is the Course Leader on the University of Strathclyde’s (Scotland) MSc/LLM in Mediation and Conflict Resolution and the Director of the Strathclyde Mediation Clinic. The Clinic provides a free mediation service in which experienced practitioners work alongside trainee mediators to help people resolve disputes without going to court or tribunal. The following is Charlie’s Director’s Column published in Mediation Matters!, the Clinic’s quarterly newsletter. Irvine wrote an account of his own mediation system that was one of ten real mediation systems Lande analyzed in Real Mediation Systems to Help Parties and Mediators Achieve Their Goals.

The Unfulfilled Promise Of Self-Determination In Court-Connected Mediation, Peter Reilly

Faculty Scholarship

In the context of mediation, party self-determination refers to the ability of disputants to have power, control, and autonomy in the process. There are numerous process design questions involved in running a mediation, no matter its subject matter. Consider just one example: “Should the mediation be conducted in-person, or virtually?” The answer to this question can have a profound impact on the direction and course of a mediation, including its outcome. Yet, in the context of court-connected mediation, disputing parties are not consistently provided the opportunity to give input on how such process design questions are resolved. In fact, these …

Party Self-Empowerment From Preparation For Mediation Sessions, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

If parties are well-prepared before mediation sessions, they will be knowledgeable, confident, and assertive so that they can exercise their decision-making authority as well as possible. Well-prepared parties can make decisions before and during mediation sessions rather than simply relying on mediators to promote their self-determination. In other words, they will feel more empowered to participate productively. Depending on the circumstances, mediators, lawyers, courts, and/or mediation programs may help parties get prepared.

Len Riskin Pulls It All Together In Managing Conflict Mindfully, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes Len Riskin’s impressive career and summarizes themes in his book, Managing Conflict Mindfully: Don’t Believe Everything You Think. He argues that people can wisely manage conflict by learning to use and integrate three sets of ideas and techniques – negotiation, mindfulness, and internal family systems (IFS). You can think of IFS as the conversation or negotiation between different voices in our heads. Rather than conceiving people as having only a single “unitary” self, IFS recognizes the “multiplicity” of our selves.

Commercial Mediation In Mainland China: Pitfalls & Opportunities, Meng Chen

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article offers insight into the practice of Chinese mediation, especially in resolving commercial disputes, considering the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (the Singapore Convention) entered into force on September 12, 2020. First, this article evaluates the attractiveness, vulnerabilities, and popularity of mediation as a means of dispute resolution. The article then introduces the Chinese model of using mediation to resolve commercial disputes, specifically in judicial and arbitral proceedings. Based on empirical data and rules analysis, this article concludes with the benefits of using mediation in China to resolve disputes and exposes a discrepancy between …

The Artistry Of Mediation: A Look At Mediation’S Effectiveness For Resolving Cross-Cultural Disputes Through The Leonardo Da Vinci Conflict Between France’S Louvre Museum And Italy’S Uffizi Gallery, Sophia D. Casetta

Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research

Art is powerful, as it symbolizes the history and identity of the country that claims it. However, through timely transitions, such as trade and wars, the ownership of meaningful artworks blurs, with museums fighting to claim their heritage to put on honorable display for their people. Mediation can be a peaceful means to resolve art ownership disputes, as it accounts for respecting the individual cultures of the countries represented in the dispute. Using the key medication traits described within this essay, a prepared mediator involved in such a cross-cultural conflict should be able to help resolve the issue at hand. …

Problem-Resolution Lawyering Across The Twenty-First Century Law Curriculum, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post highlights an article by Kris Franklin and F. Peter Phillips. They argue, “Framing lawyers’ professional role as helping clients resolve problems – and therefore in turn, conceiving law school coursework as preparation for that role – should alter teaching, learning, and law practice in ways that inevitably improves each.” The article includes “exemplars” of ways to shift the legal curriculum to focus on lawyers as problem resolution partners.

A Proposal For The Joint Development Of Generative Ai For The Dispute Resolution Profession, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post by Gary Doernhoefer proposes the development of a data set for the dispute resolution profession as the basis for AI systems. The ideal model would be for a collaboration in the dispute resolution field to create the refined data set, establish guardrails, and set privacy parameters for the use of the data. This would involve a centralized advisory board to address concerns such as (1) privacy requirements for how the queries are received, stored, and used, (2) the expertise needed to curate additional training materials, (3) shared costs of development, and (4) gaining the cooperation of industry authors …

Shifting Into “Neutral”: Evaluating Mediation As A Peaceful Alternative To The Forceful Resolution Of The 2022 Canada–Freedom Convoy Dispute, Teresa (Tessa) Griego

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In early 2022, the Canadian government found itself confronted by a group of truck drivers—in what came to be known as the “Freedom Convoy”—protesting government-imposed restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This article evaluates how mediation could—and should—have been used as an effective means for the government and protestors to resolve their dispute. It begins by defining the government health and safety measures that prompted the protests and describing the ensuing protest movement by the Freedom Convoy. The article then discusses the protest’s implications on commerce and on the communities where it was located. Next, the article describes the unilateral …

Real Mediation Systems To Help Parties And Mediators Achieve Their Goals, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This article argues that it is time for a paradigm shift in our current general mediation theory because of numerous problems. Our current theory is incomplete at best and seriously misleading at worst. The traditional mediation models are oversimplified, poorly mapping onto the reality of practice. They combine multiple elements that are not necessarily correlated. Many practitioners ignore them because they are confusing or not helpful. People do not understand the theoretical meanings because the terms are not consistent with commonly understood language. Arguments about what is or is not real or good mediation have spawned unhelpful ideological divisions in …

Ai, Adr, And Anxiety, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post discusses AI generally, growing anxiety about it and modern life generally, and how we can manage this anxiety. Anxiety about AI may be feeding into a more general anxiety about events in the US and around the world. We can address anxiety by focusing on what we actually can control. Regarding AI and ADR, I suggest that the machine mediation “glass” will be partly empty and partly full – as is human mediation. It’s important to recognize our own reactions to and fears about AI, have as accurate and balanced an understanding of what’s happening as possible, acknowledge …

Avatar Mediation, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post speculates about how AI systems might mediate (or assist in mediation) in the not-too-distant future.

Increasing Housing Stability Through State-Funded Community Mediation Delivered By The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (Hmp) In Fy2022, Madhawa Palihapitiya, David Sulewski, Karina Zeferino, Jarling Ho

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

This report presents findings and recommendations from an evaluation of the Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (HMP) administered by the MA Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston in partnership with 11 Community Mediation Centers (Centers). The program is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and implemented in partnership with the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The program was initially part of the Governor’s Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI), which ended in the latter half of FY2022 and is continuing as an intervention to support housing stability. The evaluation was conducted by MOPC’s research unit comprised …

Selected Dispute Resolution Bibliography, Shannon Moldaver, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Articles & Book Chapters

Included in this bibliography is a selected set of dispute resolution and related professional responsibility and access to justice readings, primarily (although not exclusively) with a general negotiation and mediation focus. This bibliography is not comprehensive. Rather – given the breadth of dispute resolution, legal process, professional responsibility, and access to justice materials available – this bibliography includes a brief sampling of available readings that may be of interest to those studying, practicing, or thinking about dispute resolution.