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Photo of Thomas J. Stipanowich, J.D.

Thomas J. Stipanowich, J.D.
William H. Webster Chair in Dispute Resolution, Academic Director Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and Professor of Law

Office: School of Law (SOL)
E-mail: thomas.stipanowich@pepperdine.edu

  • J.D., University of Illinois, 1980, magna cum laude
  • M. Arch, University of Illinois, 1976
  • B.S., University of Illinois, 1974, highest honors

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Thomas J. Stipanowich is a leader in the field of conflict resolution. He is an award-winning author and much-cited authority on arbitration, mediation, and other subjects; the director of one of the world's pre-eminent academic programs on dispute resolution; the former chief executive of another prestigious international institution; a popular teacher and trainer; a respected and widely experienced arbitrator and mediator; and the winner of several of the dispute resolution field's highest honors, including the American Bar Association's prestigious D'Alemberte/Raven Award. He holds Pepperdine School of Law's endowed chair in dispute resolution, the William H. Webster Chair.

Professor Stipanowich's many writings include co-authorship of a leading treatise, Federal Arbitration Law: Agreements, Awards and Remedies, cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and many other federal and state courts, and which was named Best New Legal Book by the Association of American Publishers. As Director of the National Commission on the Future of Arbitration he produced Commercial Arbitration at Its Best (2001), a book of practice guidelines for lawyers that was honored by the American Bar Association. He recently co-authored Resolving Disputes: Theory, Law and Practice (Aspen, 2005), a book and materials for law students on negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. He was also honored for Best Academic Article by the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution.

A long-time chaired professor of law, he has advised or participated in national efforts at statutory reform (including revisions to the Uniform Arbitration Act). He was also academic reporter and chief drafter of a protocol for the Consumer Due Process Protocol governing consumer arbitration and ADR programs. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association (AAA), and was the first AAA Hoellering International Visiting Scholar.

Since 2006, Stipanowich has been Academic Director of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and Professor of Law at Pepperdine School of Law. From 2001-5 he served as President and CEO of the New York-based International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR Institute), one of the leading dispute resolution organizations in the world.

In 2008, Professor Stipanowich was awarded the prestigious D'Alemberte/Raven Award by the ABA Section on Dispute Resolution, given to an individual who has made significant contributions to the field. He is one of four (and the only non-British) Companion of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a Fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers, and a Founding Fellow of the American College of Commercial Arbitrators. He is an Honorary Member of the Marie Garibaldi A.D.R. Inn of Court, and an Honorary Fellow of the International Academy of Meditators (IAM) the American College of Civil Trial Mediators (ACCTM). He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The American Lawyer, The National Law Journal, The American Bar Association Journal, Trial, Corporate Legal Times, The China Daily, and many other print and online publications. He was recently selected as one of 500 outstanding lawyers in America in a survey conducted by a new legal magazine, LAWDRAGON.

An experienced commercial and construction arbitrator (as well as a mediator, special master and facilitator), Stipanowich is a member of the JAMS Panel of Neutrals.

Selected Works:
  • Arbitration and Choice: Taking Charge of the "New Litigation", 7 DEPAUL BUS. & COM. L.J. 3 (forthcoming 2009) (symposium issue).
  • Arbitration: The "New Litigation", 2010 U. ILL. L.REV. 1 (forthcoming Jan. 2010).
  • Speeches: The Future of Commercial Arbitration, 9 PEPP. DISP. RESOL. L.J. 415.
  • Real Time Strategies for Relationship Conflict, IBA LEGAL PRACTICE DIVISION MEDIATION NWSLTR., July 2007, at 6.
  • The Arbitration Penumbra: Arbitration Law and the Rapidly Changing Landscape of Dispute Resolution, 8 NEV. L.J. 427 (2007).
  • Mediation Could be Key to Improving U.S.-Chinese Business Relations, L.A. DAILY J., Nov. 28, 2007, at 4.
  • Conflict Management in Evolution: Three Predictions in ACCL Princeton Symposium, Building the Future, AMER. C. CONSTRUCTION LAW., Special Edition, May 2007, at 156.
  • ADR and 'The Vanishing Trial': What We Know -- and What We Don't, DISP. RESOL. MAG., Summer 2004, at 7.
  • ADR and the Vanishing Trial: The Growth and Impact of Alternative Dispute Resolution, 1 J. EMPIRICAL LEGAL STUDIES 843 (2004) (symposium issue).
  • Howsam, Humana and Bazzle: Recent Cases that may Affect Your Arbitration/ADR Practice, ALTERNATIVES TO HIGH COST LITIG., Mar. 2003, at 51.
  • Publisher's View on 'The Costs of Arbitration', ALTERNATIVES TO HIGH COST LITIG., May 2002, at 103.
  • Transition Year Sets Stage for an Expanded Agenda, ALTERNATIVES TO HIGH COST LITIG., Jan. 2002, at 1.
  • Contract and Conflict Management, 2001 WIS. L. REV. 831 (2001).
  • The Learning Curve: Education and the Culture of Conflict Management, ALTERNATIVES TO HIGH COST LITIG., Jan. 2001, at 32.
  • The Future of Dispute Resolution: Future Lies Down a Number of Divergent Paths, DISP. RESOL. MAG., Spring 2000, at 16.
  • Thomas J. Stipanowich & Roger Alford, ARBITRATION LAW AND PRACTICE (Aspen, forthcoming).
  • Thomas J. Stipanowich & Nancy Nelson, COMMERCIAL MEDIATION IN EUROPE: BETTER SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS (CPR Institute Master Guide Series) (CPR 2005).
  • Thomas J. Stipanowich, Dwight Golann, & Lisa A. Kloppenberg, RESOLVING DISPUTES: THEORY, PRACTICE, AND LAW (Jay Folberg ed., Aspen 2005).
  • Contract and Conflict Management, in ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN THE EMPLOYMENT ARENA: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 53RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON LABOR (Samuel Estreicher & David Sherwyn eds., Kluwer Law International 2004).
  • Thomas J. Stipanowich & Peter H. Kaskell, COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION AT ITS BEST: SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES FOR BUSINESS USERS: A REPORT OF THE CPR COMMISSION ON THE FUTURE OF ARBITRATION (CPR 2001).