LLM in Dispute Resolution Curriculum

This course examines the theory and practice of negotiation as a process used to put deals together or to resolve disputes and legal claims. Students learn about competitive positional bargaining and collaborative problem solving and acquire insight into the strategic management of the tension between the two approaches.

Through simulated exercises, students develop skills and confidence as negotiators, including an awareness of the psychological encouragements and barriers to consensus. Special challenges of multiparty negotiations are addressed with an emphasis on the attorney-client relationship, including applicable ethical standards, codes, and law.

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Analyze theories of and demonstrate an understanding of the practical skills of negotiation by preparing a substantive research paper.
• Demonstrate negotiation skills by engaging in simulated exercises and in multiparty negotiations.
• Show an awareness of ethical rules and informal constraints regulating the conduct of lawyers and negotiators in certain settings.

The mediation class examines the dynamics, benefits, constraints, and skills related to third-party intervention in the resolution of legal disputes. The course explores mediation as a collaborative process of resolving conflict; the legislative, ethical, and practical constraints on its use; as well as the skills needed to serve in a mediation capacity. There is an emphasis on learning through simulation exercises, which are drawn from the labor, family, and commercial areas.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a methodical approach to mediation.
• Articulate and apply mediation techniques in a legal dispute.
• Differentiate between ethical and unethical practices in mediation, and identify potential ethical dilemmas and solutions.
• Demonstrate awareness of legal and public policy concerns regarding the practice of mediation.

This course is designed to put students in the driver’s seat, confronting them with scenarios and issues that are familiar to legal counselors and advocates in arbitration. By the time students complete this class, they should be able to:

• Differentiate the many forms and applications of arbitration processes in a variety of transactions and settings.
• Compare and contrast arbitration with mediation and other “ADR” approaches and with litigation in court.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of arbitration usages in business and the roles of arbitrators and party representatives.
• Negotiate and draft an arbitration/dispute resolution agreement.
• Show an understanding of key differences associated with different arbitration rules and procedures, including differences in provider institutions and arbitrator appointment procedures.
• Describe how to prepare for and conduct an arbitration hearing from the commencement of the process through the rendition of an arbitration award, including the prehearing conference, development of a procedural order, and setting a timetable for arbitration.
• Identify and explain issues or process choices likely to arise during the course of an arbitration.
• Show an understanding of the kinds of remedies available in arbitration and ways of framing arbitration awards and what happens after an award is rendered.
• Enumerate key ethical obligations of arbitrators, with special emphasis on procedural fairness, independence, and impartiality.
• Identify special concerns associated with arbitration occurring under standardized contracts involving consumers or employees.
• Identify the issues that arise when the same person is a mediator as well as an arbitrator in a case and ways of addressing related concerns.

It is important that this class seem as relevant and useful to students’ lives and careers as possible. Today, some arbitration processes are heavily affected by the law and lawyers, but they are widely used to resolve business disputes. Students do not have to have a legal background to thoroughly understand what is covered in this course.

The course examines how obvious and not-so-obvious cultural differences impact resolution of interpersonal and interstate (international) disputes. Specifically, the course will bring an international perspective to understanding the impact of culture in the most commonly used international and domestic dispute resolution practices (negotiation and mediation).

This course also surveys the impact that cultural differences, stereotypes, and attributions have on key dispute resolution processes and on conflict generally. It is designed to build theoretical knowledge, to equip students with an analytical framework useful in determining suitable dispute resolution processes, and to instill practical skills and strategies to enhance effectiveness in cross-cultural contexts.

Cultural differences in language, customs, values, legal systems, and worldviews are examined along various dimensions: orientation toward the individual or the collective community; importance of career success over quality of life; deference to authority; long- vs. short-term orientation; extent to which expectations for behavior are implicit or express; perceptions of time and personal space; and aversion to risk.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Practice negotiation and mediation techniques by engaging in role-playing exercises.
• Practice legal writing skills and demonstrate an understanding of dispute resolution theory through preparation of an original research paper addressing a topic related to cross-cultural conflict and dispute resolution.

Psychology of Conflict and Communication is a survey course covering the intersection of psychology, law, conflict, and dispute resolution with application to human communication. This course explores psychological phenomena, the frameworks for analyzing conflict that results from these phenomena, as well as conflict resolution communication skills to address these phenomena. This course is designed to provide insights from areas of cognitive and social psychology, neuro-collaboration, and communication theory and apply those insights to dispute resolution and negotiations.

Topics addressed in this course include paradigms for the sources of conflict; escalation and de-escalation theory; the physiology of conflict; managing personalities in conflict resolution, both “regular” and “high-conflict” personalities; emotional intelligence competencies and conflict resolution; exposure to the canon of personality instruments, including MBTI and TKI; the myth of rationality and decision-making; cognitive biases; neuropsychology including empathy, mirror neurons, and memory; trust and altruism; persuasion, rhetoric, dialogue, narrative paradigm, and linguistics; power, threat, and face-saving; and anger and the limits of argumentation and rationality.

At the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Develop and demonstrate a deep understanding of the psychology of conflict communication and its intersection with dispute resolution and lawyering through participation in role playing, simulations, and other skills-based learning exercises.
• Assess professional obligations, in part, by preparing simulation response papers in which students explore reflective professionalism, which includes fostering self-awareness, exploring a paradigm for giving and receiving feedback, and developing a language for critique of their own professional performance.
• Appraise their own approach to conflict, and improve their ability as a problem solver and human being to resolve conflicts through participation in skill-based learning exercises and preparation of simulation response and research papers.
• Identify personality styles, choose appropriate intervention techniques, and maintain ethical principles while dealing with difficult people professionally and personally through participation in skill-based learning exercises and preparation of simulation response and research papers. Students will identify conflicts in communication, analyze and evaluate the communication competency of conflict participants, and analyze communication theories.

The World of Conflict Management provides LLM students with an overview of the spectrum of processes and skills they may draw upon to solve problems, manage conflict and resolve disputes in public and private venues. Lawyers confront and address conflict in a wide variety of settings–within families, workplaces and organizations, in communities, in commercial transactions and relationships; and other situations, domestic and international. Effective management and resolution of conflict demands a working knowledge of a range of processes including negotiation, and forms of mediation, non-binding evaluation, binding arbitration and litigation, and the acquisition of related skills and insights relating to effective communication, the psychology of conflict, and cross cultural interaction and communication. 

Online LLM Residency 2 — Dispute Resolution in Practice is an immersive, experiential and advanced residency course through which students explore ethics, problem solving, advocacy, and various stages and kinds of conflict management and dispute resolution. This course is focused on the skills of cross-cultural dispute resolution, facilitation, group dialogues and arbitration advocacy. This course will also address advanced, complex approaches including stepped dispute resolution processes, forms of interplay between mediation and arbitration in “mixed mode” practice, and real-time approaches to relational conflict management. To develop a deeper understanding of Arbitration and Advanced Negotiation/Mediation in practice, students will engage in case studies, live role plays, mock negotiations and mediations to learn how dispute resolution professionals resolve controversies and resolve complex conflicts.

This advanced course builds upon and augments the basics of mediation theory and practice through an in-depth examination of selected aspects of the process. Students expand and refine their skills as mediators by addressing topics such as dealing with difficult parties, overcoming impasse, mediating with large numbers of participants, responding to media in a mediation, using a decision-tree analysis, and employing counterintuitive and mindful mediation strategies. Controversial ethical issues and public policy concerns, such as the limits of confidentiality and expectations of procedural fairness, are also explored through complex scenarios. The personal qualities of a mediator and central components integral to a professional mediation practice are examined, together with suggestions for marketing, managing, and building a successful practice.

Prerequisite: Mediation Theory and Practice

This advanced course explores conflicts that arise in the context of families, with emphasis on negotiating and mediating issues surrounding marital separation and divorce. It is designed to equip students with the strategic judgment, skills and sensitivity needed to help parties build consensus on matters such as child custody, visitation, division of property, spousal support, and child education and support. Relevant emotional concerns, such as feelings of betrayal and loss, are examined, along with techniques for addressing them. Special considerations surrounding high conflict families, domestic violence, spousal or child abuse, and “move aways”, as well as ethical issues related to power differentials, court-mandated mediation, collaborative law and mediator certification, are also covered.

This advanced course examines the consensual processes used to resolve public policy disputes, particularly those concerning environmental and community impact, natural resources management, and land use and regulation. It is designed to equip students to strategically facilitate understandings among large constituencies with divergent interests through, for example, identification of stakeholders, selection of appropriate spokespersons, management of multiple participants, acquisition of approval from public sector entitles, and coordination with elected officials. Negotiated rule-making and the 1990 Administration Dispute Resolution Act are also covered. 

Prerequisite: Mediation Theory and Practice or Alternative Dispute Resolution

This course provides a comprehensive overview of international arbitration law and practice. Topics explored include the making and enforcement of arbitration agreements; the selection and appointment of the arbitral tribunal; preliminary proceedings, including procedural orders and interim relief; the arbitration hearing; and the making and enforcement of the arbitral award. Particular attention is paid to the enforcement of arbitration agreements and awards, the role of the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards and other treaties, and their interplay with national laws as a backdrop for private arbitration agreements.

This class will examine each of the themes of apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation. A spectrum of definitions and meanings of each theme will be explored. A variety of approaches on how to implement each theme will be discussed. The material will be addressed from the context of governing our own lives, providing professional advice to another as an advocate, and serving as a mediator. Class material will include religious and nonreligious perspectives on these themes.

This course will address protocols for resolving disputes in the nonunionized workplaces. The class will discuss unique concerns originating from the negotiation, mediation, and arbitration of employment claims like race, age, gender, and religious discrimination; sexual harassment, wage hour class actions, Americans with Disabilities Act violations, workers’ compensation, whistleblowers, Family and Medical Leave Act violations, and occupational safety requirements; and wrongful termination, EEOC dispute resolution programs, internal dispute resolution systems for employees, and the growing trend of ombuds offices.

This course focuses on how disputes are resolved in the entertainment industry through mediation and arbitration. A broad range of contexts, such as motion pictures, television, music publishing and records, as well as sports and the arts, form the backdrop for the examination of various cases and simulations. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is explored from the point of view of house counsel, business affairs executives, outside counsel, transactional attorneys, litigators, mediators, arbitrators, agents, creative executives, union representatives, performers, artists, and Olympic athletes. 

Students gain familiarity with details of established dispute resolution programs, such as the following:

• Entertainment Panel of American Arbitration Association (AAA)
• Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA)
• Arts Arbitration and Mediation Service (AAMS)
• Writers Guild of America (WGA)
• Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)
• NCAA and professional sports leagues dispute resolution protocols

The course also addresses entertainment industry acceptance of ADR, ethical issues, blended ADR processes, international issues, entertainment industry style and subculture, and practice tips.

This two-unit survey course will explore corporate and organizational conflict management and the design of appropriate dispute resolution (ADR) systems, emphasizing the role of both attorneys and business leaders as problem solvers. Students will discuss various dispute resolution techniques that corporations and organizations utilize to prevent, manage, and resolve lawsuits, claims, and other forms of conflict.

Students will obtain an overview and understanding of:

• Why litigation and other traditional forms of dispute resolution may not always be the best way for corporations and organizations to resolve conflict
• What corporations and organizations have done to meet the challenges associated with the costs, time cycle, and uncertainty of litigation and other methods of dispute resolution
• How some corporations and organizations design and institutionalize a program within their organization to proactively manage conflict
• The benefits of early case assessment and early resolution strategies
• An overview of the various dispute resolution processes that have been found to be effective in today’s business world

This course will explore the theory and practice of ombuds and ombuds programs. These programs are being created at a quickening pace. Our goal is to provide a thorough background that could be used in making a decision about establishing an ombuds program or in examining ombuds practice as a personal career direction. This course is organized around a series of questions:

1. What is ombuds? (a general overview of the concept and its evolution)
2. Why does ombuds work? (a review of the theory of third-party intervention in conflict)
3. How does ombuds work? (a survey of ombuds practice with opportunities to try it out)
4. How can ombuds get wide institution/constituency support? (an exploration of best programmatic practices for building strong and enduring programs)
5. What are the issues that arise in ombuds practice? (an open-ended discussion of the current opportunities and challenges in the profession)

Time will be spent in a variety of activities: presentation, discussion, brainstorming, and skills practice