On Thursday September 28 (beginning at 12:10 eastern), Texas A&M Professor Cynthia Alkon will deliver The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law’s 2023 Lawrence Lecture on Dispute Resolution: “Negotiating for Justice in our Criminal Legal System.” Here is the description from OSU’s website.

There is widespread and bipartisan agreement that the criminal legal system in the United States is broken and in need of reform.  Yet, little has changed. Mass incarceration continues to be a feature of the US criminal legal system. There are birth-to-prison pipelines where simply being born in a poor and underprivileged neighborhood vastly increases…
Continue Reading Cynthia Alkon to Deliver Moritz’s 2023 Lawrence Lecture

I am delighted to link to the most recent issue of the Cardozo Journal on Conflict Resolution here.

We hosted this terrific event last fall and are happy to have this wonderful slate of articles and authors as the product. The table of contents is below:

Much appreciation to all of our speakers, authors and student editors on the Journal!!
Continue Reading CJCR Symposium on Hybrid Warfare–In Print and Online!

The International Chamber of Commerce is seeking applicants to be Deputy Counsel, based in New York City, primarily working with cases in the North American region.  I’m told that they generally look for folks who are a few years out of law school and know arbitration  well, even if they haven’t formally worked in the field as counsel.
Go here for the  job posting and the basic job description is below
The role involves both legal and administrative tasks, including:

• Reviewing and processing requests for arbitration and other documents filed by parties, arbitrators, and others during arbitration proceedings.
• Preparing agendas

…
Continue Reading Deputy Counsel – ICC Court of Arbitration

From Corinne N. Stuber on behalf of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution:
The ABA Dispute Resolution Section is now accepting program proposals for our 2024 Spring Conference that will be held April 10–13, 2024, in San Diego, CA.
This year’s conference theme is Mastering the Future: Revolutionizing Dispute Resolution in a Dynamic World.
We welcome program proposals from anyone who can enlighten and connect with our anticipated attendees, who include dispute resolution leaders, mediators, arbitrators, ombuds, judges, attorney advocates, court administrators, neutral providers, ADR consumers, and legal educators.
The proposal deadline is Wednesday, September 13 at 5 p.m. ET,…
Continue Reading Last Chance to Submit Proposal for ABA Conference – Sept. 13 Deadline

So…my youngest son graduated this spring (yay!) and moved home (yay!) and we needed another car (boo!) This was made even sadder by the fact that there was very little negotiation to be done–if you’ve tried to buy a car since the pandemic, you know the market is still quite wonky with a very limited supply of used cars. This means that there is little room to negotiate–and for the negotiation professor who views car buying as market/real-world research, this is just sad.

But here is what made me happy: my two sons (of three) who live in Milwaukee were…
Continue Reading DSD at its Best?

On August 31st, the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center issued draft guidelines for comment.

SILICON VALLEY ARBITRATION AND MEDIATION CENTER GUIDELINES ON THE USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN ARBITRATION

The guidelines were written for the benefit of “arbitral institutions, arbitrators, parties and their representatives (including counsel), experts, and, where relevant, other participants in the arbitral process.” The guidelines include a model clause that the center suggests parties could incorporate into their arbitrations.

The following is the model clause set forth in the Draft Guidelines:

“The Tribunal and the parties agree that the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center’s Guidelines…
Continue Reading Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center Publishes Draft Guidelines on AI use in Arbitration for Comment

I am posting the following announcement on behalf of the AAA

The American Arbitration Association® (AAA®) is the global leader in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), and as such, is committed to the growth of diversity and inclusion within the ADR field. Since 2009, the AAA A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. Fellows Program has provided training, networking, and mentorship for up-and-coming diverse ADR practitioners—many of whom have advanced to appointment to the AAA Roster and have been selected to serve on cases.

THE DIVERSITY STUDENT ADR SUMMIT: As part of our ongoing commitment, the AAA is hosting an ADR Summit for diverse…
Continue Reading AAA Accepting Applications for Diverse Student Summit

For those that might be interested, the US Air Force Academy is looking for a visiting professor to teach Negotiation in 2024-25.

Here is the full listing:

The Department of Law at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, offers an undergraduate Legal Studies Program.  We seek a full-time employee from a U.S. graduate or undergraduate institution of higher education, or from a government agency, to fill an 11-month position as a visiting faculty member for academic year 2024-25.  We are particularly interested in welcoming a visiting professor who will teach the Law Department’s Principles of Negotiation course.
Continue Reading Visiting Professor Job at the US Air Force Academy

The word of the month for September is “allostasis.” A simple definition for allostasis is “achieving stability through change.”
Not by resisting change, and not in spite of change.
Last week, Brad Stulberg published an opinion piece in the New York Times called “Stop Resisting Change.” Stulberg explains that in the 1980s, neuroscientist Peter Sterling and biologist Joseph Eyer suggested that after experiencing change/disorder/disruption, healthy baselines do not necessarily return to their original starting points but instead may end up somewhere new:
The brain is at its best when it is constantly rewiring itself and making new connections — what…
Continue Reading September: Allostasis

Several of us here at indisputably have been struck by a story that was reported in last Sunday’s NY Times, The Instagram Account That Shattered a California High School – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

A high school student in Albany, California started a private Instagram account to post what he said was “edgy” content—but was in reality disturbing and violent racist statements and imagery (for example nooses directed at pictures of African American students).  As the NY Times reported, the account had “barely a dozen followers.”  But, once it was discovered, by a student who was one of the…
Continue Reading Not a Restorative Justice Process

The New York Times published an encouraging article, Gratitude Really Is Good for You.  Here’s What the Science Shows.  Here are some excerpts.
Giving, receiving and even witnessing gratitude can improve your well-being, especially during difficult times.  . . .
To date, numerous studies have found that having a grateful outlook, “counting one’s blessings” and expressing gratitude to others can have positive effects on our emotional health as well as on interpersonal and romantic relationships.  . . .
But “feeling it is only half the equation,” said Philip Watkins, a professor of psychology at Eastern Washington University and the…
Continue Reading Gratitude Really Is Good for You

The past academic year was another big one for lateral moves, and this upcoming year looks to be a good one for hiring as at least 5 schools (maybe more?) have ads out mentioning DR as an area where they are looking.  With the Next Gen Bar Exam looming in the not too distant future, it would not be surprising if we were to see many more entry-level hires and lateral moves going forward.  And, as usual, it’s likely that I have missed someone who deserves to be on this list.  If you know of someone who should be mentioned,…
Continue Reading Comings and Goings – 2023 edition