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Mediation Advocacy

Professor(s)

Semester

2019 Summer - Term 2

About This Class

This intensive seminar will meet for three consecutive days over one weekend: a Friday afternoon and all day Saturday and Sunday.  Students will participate in one complex environmental mediation over the course of the seminar, actively playing the role of attorney and/or client. The seminar will specifically be focused on Mediation Advocacy, not how to be a mediator. Students will be introduced (through lecture, the text, and class discussions) to the theory, principles and concepts of how to be an effective advocate in the mediation process, whether as an attorney or as a client.  More importantly, students will be given multiple opportunities to practice mediation advocacy skills through a simulation and group exercises. Students will receive feedback from three sources: self, peers and the professor. Topics to be covered include: the Mediation Process, Designing a Mediation and Selecting a Mediator, Preparing the Client and the Case, Opening Statements, Joint Sessions and Individual Caucuses, Developing and Narrowing Options, Using the Mediator Strategically, Impasse and Closure, Ethical Issues, the Law of Mediation and Public Policy Issues.

This class is open to both JD and non-JD students. Given the abbreviated format of the seminar, prompt attendance at all class sessions is mandatory.  Students will be graded as follows:  25% class participation, 25% a five-page journal; 50% a ten page Mediation Advocacy Plan on a topic of the student’s choice.  The journal and paper will be due on Saturday July 21 (absent truly exceptional circumstances, no extensions will be granted).

Class Code

ADR 6413

Subject

Unspecified