J.D. Concentration Alternative Dispute Resolution

Students enrolled in the ADR Concentration will receive instruction and training intended to expand their understanding of the role of the lawyer outside of the traditional adversarial litigation setting and expose them to lawyering skills essential to current legal practice.

Faculty Concentration Advisors and Advisement

Professor Baruch Bush will serve as the faculty concentration advisor for this Concentration. Concentration faculty advisors may modify the Concentration requirements in exceptional circumstances upon notice to the Dean.

Guidance from a students concentration faculty advisor is an important element of successful completion of the Concentration. A concentration faculty advisor must approve a students enrollment in the Concentration. Students should meet with their advisor as soon as they find themselves interested in the Concentration, but in no event later than the course selection deadline for their fourth semester of study (or fifth semester of study for part-time students). An advisor may permit a student to enroll in the Concentration at a later date, but only after determining that the student can realistically meet the requirements of the Concentration prior to graduation.

Once enrolled in the Concentration, students must meet with their faculty advisor at least once per semester, prior to that semester's course selection deadline, in order to plan their course selection and review their progress in fulfilling the Concentrations requirements. A students concentration faculty advisor must also review and approve the concentration writing requirement.

Course Requirements

Required Core Courses:

Students must take the following course:

Alternatives to Litigation (3)1

Required Skills Courses:

Students must take at least one of the following courses:

• Legal Interviewing, Counseling, and Negotiation (3)
• Collaborative Law Seminar (2)
• Modern Divorce Advocacy (1)
• Mediation Principles and Practice (2)2
• Securities Arbitration Clinic (6) (if not taken as a culminating experience)
• Mediation Clinic (6) (if not taken as a culminating experience)

Elective Courses:

Students must take at least three additional elective courses from the following list.

Preferably, students will take at least one course from each of groups 1, 2 and 3 to meet their elective requirement.

At the very least, students must choose 2 courses out of groups 1, 2 and 3. These two courses cannot be from the same group. The third required elective can be from any of the 4 groups.

Group 1

• Advanced Mediation Seminar (2-3)
• Mediation Principles and Practice (2)3

Group 2

• Negotiation Seminar: Theory, Research, and Practice (2)
• Collaborative Family Law Seminar (2)
• Legal Interviewing, Counseling, and Negotiation (3)

Group 3

• International Commercial Arbitration (3)
• Domestic Commercial Arbitration (2)

Group 4

• Family Law (with Skills Component) (4)
• Modern Divorce Advocacy (1)
• Any other course approved by the student's concentration advisor, including an independent study or an ADR related externship.
• Representing Clients in Mediation (2)4
• Methods of Int'l Comm. ADR (2)5

Culminating Experience:

Students must take at least one of the following courses:

• Mediation Clinic (6)
• Securities Arbitration Clinic (6)
• Any externship that involves ADR practice and/or policy work. The externship must be certified by the advisor to qualify as a culminating experience. (3-4)

Writing Requirement

A student must complete a writing requirement that would satisfy either Writing Requirement I or II in any course, or via any Journal note or Independent Study, on an ADR subject or subjects, as approved by the student's concentration faculty advisor. It is permissible for the writing used to satisfy this requirement be the same writing used by the student to satisfy another Law School requirement.