My colleague, Renee Henson, wrote an important new article, My Negotiation Chatbot Toby and Pedagogical Governance, about a chatbot that she developed for her first-year Lawyering: Problem-Solving and Dispute Resolution course at the University of Missouri Law School.Her article provides a thoughtful analysis of how faculty can use AI to improve legal education. It also illustrates something broader: AI can be used in a “centaur” mode in which humans and AI contribute complementary capabilities. Working together, they can produce better results than either could produce independently while humans retain judgment and responsibility.Meet TobyRenee created Toby to give students practice
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Does Your Law School Have an AI Strategy?
This weekend, I returned home from the fabulous AALS ADR Section Works in Progress conference at the University of Missouri. (Not a long trip for me.)As always, I really enjoyed the presentations and conversations with friends and colleagues. By all accounts, Carli Conklin and Rachel Wechsler did an outstanding job planning and hosting the conference.After I presented my short article, Beyond AI Slop: Preparing Law Students for Responsible Practice in the AI Era, an associate dean asked for my thoughts about developing an AI strategy for her school. We didn’t have enough time to discuss it, and I thought
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AI Inside Arbitration Institutions
And here is the next (very timely!) post in our Chinese arbitration series:AI Inside Arbitration InstitutionsGuan YunbiaoMuch of the current discussion about artificial intelligence and dispute resolution focuses on individual users: whether lawyers should use generative AI to draft briefs, whether arbitrators may use it for legal research or award drafting, and what disclosure should be required. Developments in China point to a different question: what happens when AI is incorporated into the arbitration institution itself?Several leading Chinese arbitration centers already are incorporating AI into the infrastructure through which cases are filed, administered, heard, and decided. Their experience offers an
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Kukin Program Podcasts!
Hi everyone! I’m excited to share that the Kukin Program podcast channel is dropping new episodes every Wednesday. The conversations include insightful discussions, real-world stories, and expert perspectives on the world of dispute resolution and mediation.
On How My Friends Negotiate I interview people at the top of their fields including an Olympian, a former police chief, a best-selling cookbook author and iconic bakery owner, and an Emmy award winning movie producer. The first guest of season 2 is Indira Lakshmanan, award-winning journalist and host of NPR’s Here & Now. Yesterday’s episode is with Darryl Davis, known as
China’s Arbitration Institutions
Here is the next installment in our China and ADR Design Series:China’s Arbitration InstitutionsLiu Zihe and Ren ZhongIn much of the world, arbitration is concentrated in a relatively small number of major institutions. China has 285 local arbitration centers. That difference is not simply a matter of scale. It reflects a distinctive approach to dispute-system design: government-supported institutional creation followed by increasing competition, differentiation, and movement toward organizational independence.The growth has been extraordinary. In 1995, 11 Chinese arbitration centers handled 107 cases involving roughly RMB 300 million (approximately US$44.7 million). By 2025, the Ministry of Justice reported 285 centers,
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AI, Teaching, and Lessons from an Old Negotiation Debate
Reading this morning’s discussion about AI and legal education on the DR Listserv brought to mind an old debate that many ADR academics will recall.In 1984, James J. White published his well-known review of Getting to Yes, titled The Pros and Cons of Getting to YES, in the Journal of Legal Education. My recollection is that White argued, among other things, that the Getting to Yes framework did not fully capture how negotiation often operates in the real world. Roger Fisher’s response, as I recall, was more about advocating for how the world should be.What has always struck me
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Beyond AI Slop: Preparing Law Students for Responsible Practice in the AI Era
AI slop is coming to a legal system near you. Actually, it probably already has.Lawyers increasingly encounter AI-generated material from clients, counterpart attorneys, self-represented parties, experts, and others.Some of it is excellent.Some is slop. Here’s a technical illustration.Like it or not, your graduates are likely to deal with AI – including AI slop – from now on.What Should Law Schools Do?I just posted a short article on SSRN, Beyond AI Slop: Preparing Law Students for Responsible Practice in the AI Era, which argues that law schools should prepare students for three aspects of practice that are becoming increasingly important.Students
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Introduction to Series: China and ADR Design
Indisputably is proud to host a new series of weekly posts on developments and innovations in arbitration in China. The brainchild of Richard Bales (ONU), these posts raise questions not only for arbitration, but for our broader ADR community.China and ADR DesignRichard BalesMany of the most interesting developments in Chinese arbitration concern questions familiar to mediators and other ADR professionals: when neutrals should facilitate settlement, how technology should be integrated into dispute resolution, how institutions should balance efficiency and party autonomy, and whether dispute systems should be designed differently for different legal cultures. China is a particularly useful
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What Are We Going to Do About AI Slop?
Remember when parties developed unrealistic expectations all by themselves? Now they have AI to help.These days, mediators may have to work through expectations that have hardened around an AI-generated assessment. Lawyers may have to explain why the AI analysis is wrong, incomplete, or wildly overconfident. And imagine the client’s surprise when the other side may get to read their AI chats – embarrassing information and all.The problem of AI slop is bigger than just hallucinated cases. People can use AI in ways that omit inconvenient facts, reinforce dubious assumptions, and expose confidential information.When unreliable AI-generated material enters a dispute, the
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Still teaching and advocating–now about Alzheimers
Many of you know our colleague Ava Abramowitz, long time mediation expert and professor at GW. Ava is still teaching us–and this time about a new subject. As she wrote to me to share with our community “if Alzheimer’s runs in your family, you will want to read this piece by Ava Abramowitz who has early onset Alzheimer’s symptoms. As she has learned and as she writes, the disease may not be curable, but, if you catch it early enough, it may be slow down-able, sufficiently to live comfortably with it. Her bottom line? Get tested.” Ava’s full post on
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Help Wanted: ADR Law Prof Hiring
Remember when we thought ADR law prof hiring would pick up once the NextGen Bar started being administered? Ah, the good old days of . . . 3 years ago.Over at PrawfsBlawg, Sarah Lawsky, who has been tracking entry-level law professor hiring for years, posted about what schools were looking for this hiring cycle:Hiring Committee Topics of Interest, 2026–27With the NextGen Bar having been administered for the first time this past summer, ADR ended up on the list for only five schools. Out of nearly 200 law schools, that’s about 2.5%.So . . . not exactly the
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Turns Out That RPS Coach Really Is Pretty Cool
When mediate.com recently created this homepage for RPS Coach, it seemed like a good time to reflect on my amazing journey with this bot – and others’ too.I invited people to submit testimonials describing their experiences using RPS Coach, which are posted on the website. Their responses prompted me to think about the last 18 months of experimenting with AI and collaborating with Coach.It was not part of a grand plan. I attended a presentation by Susan Guthrie about using AI in mediation and, at the end of the program, people talked informally about using AI to write.
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Comings and Goings – 2026 Edition
At the beginning of every academic year, I like to announce major moves or milestones, and unlike past years there is not as much to report. With the NextGen Bar coming on line, my thought was we might see a lot of movement. Maybe that will be the case for future posts. And while there may not be a large quantity, all of these are pretty big news on their own. And as always – if I’ve missed anything, and it’s quite likely I have, please let me know and I will update this post as needed.And without any further
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Don’t Be a Zombie: Develop Your Own AI Centaur System
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a regular part of professional practice. Practitioners can use AI to prepare, organize information, brainstorm questions, draft communications, and think through difficult situations.The value of AI depends substantially on how people use it. Consider the difference between using AI in centaur mode and zombie mode.An AI centaur system combines complementary human and AI capabilities. Humans are responsible for making decisions based on their experience, understanding of the context, and professional judgment. They take advantage of AI’s abilities to rapidly organize information, identify patterns, generate alternatives, and assist with drafting.Working together thoughtfully, humans and AI can
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Catch Up with Indisputably
You may have missed some of our recent posts if you read them only when you get an email announcing our latest pieces. We had a technical problem that prevented the following pieces from being distributed. So if you missed those posts, here’s a chance to catch up.New Resources for Law Students and DisputantsLong Live Marc GalanterADR Scholarship Projects (August 2026)Advanced Introduction to Alternative Dispute Resolution by Carrie Menkel-MeadowTeaching Mediation This Fall? Consider Starting with a StoryMost schools are starting their new academic year. I hope you are excited about having a great new
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This is only a test.
We have had some technical problems distributing our posts, which should be fixed now. This is to test if it works.
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