Scholars at Straus - Professor Jasper Kim Inspires ADR Students to be Lifelong Learners

Professor Jasper Kim is a scholar, lawyer and consultant based in California and Korea, with particular expertise in negotiations, and the structuring of capital markets instruments for social impact. He has previously served as a visiting scholar at Harvard and Stanford Universities, and he directs the Center for Conflict Management at the Graduate School of International Studies at Ewha University, and teaches at the University of Melbourne as a Senior Fellow.

At Straus, Professor Kim teaches Negotiation Theory and Practice, one of the foundational courses in the Institute's ADR curriculum. When asked what he enjoys most about teaching students in his course, Professor Kim shared, "When I was a law student, I underestimated the value of a course like negotiations. However once I started working in the investment banking sector, I quickly realized that negotiations was, for me, the most important class not just for my career, but also for life." He says that by taking his course, students learn the power to influence others, which he states, "Involves bringing together a diversity of perspectives, experiences, actionable concepts—and practice, practice, practice via simulations—into an integrated classroom setting."

Professor Kim is a contributor to various media outlets, including the BBC, Bloomberg, CNN and The Wall Street Journal, and these days he is researching the role of emerging technologies and their relationship and utility to ADR. He shares, "ADR's future is in the area of how to negotiate and mediate with emergent technologies—smart contracts, blockchain, AI, and DLT (distributed ledger technologies)—the person who strategically pairs these technological skills with legal-negotiation skills will be positively impacting and influencing the global markets, players and policies of the future."

He inspires students to be themselves and also pursue lifelong inquiry and learning, stating that students should ask themselves, "When was the last time I changed my opinion about a fundamentally important issue?" His passion and deep expertise in the field propel students in his course to continually look for meaningful solutions to complex disputes. Professor Kim shared that he teaches at Straus due to the Institute's "Shared knowledge, ethical mission, and committed compassion for the community." Based on this, he states, "Straus is unequivocally unrivaled."