Alternative Dispute Resolution Mediation Clinic

Catalog description

Mediation is the intervention of a trained neutral into a dispute to help the disputing parties understand each other better, negotiate efficiently, and reach agreements resolving their conflict. Mediators assist parties to communicate effectively, identify and frame negotiable issues, generate alternative solutions to their conflicts, and find a mutually satisfactory outcome. Mediation training and service develop students' communication, negotiation and drafting skills, and aid students in developing a vision of the lawyer's role as problem-solver. After an intensive training program, the week before fall classes begin, students serve for 4 hours each week as mediators at the Community Dispute Resolution Centers, the Small Claims Court or the Civil Court. On average, students mediate approximately 12 cases each over the course of the fall semester. Cases include disputes between landlords and tenants, family members, neighbors, warring community groups, business partners, consumers and merchants, and teachers and students. Issues arising from ethnic and cultural diversity frequently make mediation of disputes in NYC particularly challenging. While becoming proficient as mediators, students explore - in their readings, observation assignments and weekly seminar - the techniques, theory and practice of various alternatives to litigation. These alternatives include counseling, negotiation, and arbitration, as well as mediation. Students learn to analyze which process is optimal for particular disputes. Most students become approved community mediators in the fall semester and eligible to mediate cases solo in the second semester. In the spring semester, students can elect to take the Advanced Mediation Practicum. After being approved to mediate solo as part of the New York Peace Institute, students mediate community and civil court cases on their own, as well as…