Back in the Middle with You: 

Re-Joining my U.S. ADR Tribe

In early April 2016, after a gap of several years, I finally joined an old tribe of ADR scholars, trainers, and practitioners at the annual conference, this year in New York, sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Section of Dispute Resolution. This ABA tribe claims my heart. These are great folks doing interesting and world-altering work. I love being among them.

In my last post, I talked about several new tribes that reflect my transition to a new life in Doha, Qatar as a law professor. My new Arabian Gulf ADR tribes are important to my desire to scale-up my ADR practice and training.

Yet, the anchor for my work has always been my old ABA tribe. I have tried to serve it in several ways:

• Member, Standing Committee on Ethical Guidance for Mediators (2006-2011).
• Co-Chair, Mediator Ethical Opinions Database Sub-Committee of the Standing Committee on Ethical Guidance for Mediators (2006-2008). 
• Chair of Bar Exam Committee of the Am. Bar Ass’n Taskforce on Legal Education, ADR, and Problem-Solving (2010-2011).
• National Co-Chair, Am. Bar Ass’n Section of Dispute Resolution Representation in Mediation Competition (2003-2004).

But, when my little law school in Appalachia responded to declining student enrollments by cutting back, and then eliminating, money for conference travel by professors, my ability to play a role at the national ADR level diminished quickly. It made me very sad.

This spring, I was invited to join a conference panel discussing the topic of Teaching Conflict in the Midst of Conflict. Doha remains a very safe place, but countries dealing with civil war, terrorism, and other civil unrest encircle Qatar. 

I provided some information about my experience teaching in Qatar (so far, an excellent experience). I talked about teaching gender-segregated classes and the aspirations of my male and female students. Finally, I shared the information about the state of ADR in the region, which my new Arabian Gulf ADR tribe helped me assemble and understand better. See my last post for more on that topic. 

One question -- from Nancy A. Welsh, a distinguished ADR scholar and law professor at Penn State Dickenson Law School -- really sparked my thinking. I had emphasized the cultural expectation for “justice” in the Arab world. But, I could not tell her the true source of that expectation, what it meant in this cultural context, and how it would affect expectations about procedural justice in arbitration or mediation. Sounds like a future law review article.

On the last morning of each ABA conference, a mini-tribe assembles. It consists of law professors teaching ADR in what is called the Legal Educators Colloquium. Our closing question concerned the future of ADR.  Several folks talked about the role technology would play. 

As it happened, I had the final word. I said that in a world described by Daniel Pink and Richard Susskind, value would still involve high-touch and high-empathy services. We, as ADR professors, were perfectly positioned to teach law students what that means and how lawyers and ADR professionals offer those types of services to clients. I described it as heart-centered practice. Many heads nodded.

Back to School: ASL's Award Winning Moot Court, Mock Trial, and ADR Teams

As noted in prior posts, I am using this week to brag about the Appalachian School of Law.  Today, I want to focus on our championship competition teams.

Moot Court Program

Students from the Appalachian School of Law routinely excel in nationally-known moot court competitions. These appellate advocacy competitions pit ASL students against teams from the top 50 schools.  

At the Wechsler National Criminal Law Competition, ASL has won more awards than any other school in the history of the competition -- including two national championships, two final-round appearances, five Best Advocate awards, four semi-final round appearances, and two brief writing awards.  

In the spring 2013 National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition (NELMCC), the ASL team advanced all the way to the final round -- out of 76 teams.  After three preliminary rounds, ASL was one of 27 teams that advanced to the quarterfinals.  One team member was honored as a Top Oralist for the preliminary rounds.

With 76 teams, the NELMCC purports to be the largest moot court competition in the country, and it is almost certainly the most prestigious one that focuses on environmental law issues.  The competition includes teams from Harvard, Michigan, Columbia, Georgetown, and many other decorated law schools. 

For all competitions, not just Wechsler and NELMCC, ASL has established the following impressive record:

• National Champion Team -- twice
• Finalist Team -- twice
• Semi-final Team -- seven times
• Quarter-final Team -- twelve times
• Best Advocate -- five times
• Best Brief -- twice
• Best Competitor -- once

We have established ASL as the team to beat!

For more information about our Moot Court program, contact Professor Judie Barger.

Mock Trial Program

The American Association for Justice (formerly the American Trial Lawyers Association) sponsors an annual, national competition focused on trial advocacy skills.  

In the Spring 2011 competition, students from the Appalachian School of Law placed in the top four teams.  In the Spring 2012 competition, our students placed in the top five teams.  Both years, ASL successfully competed against teams from Tier 1 schools. 

For more information about the Mock Trial program, contact Professor Tom Scott, its faculty adviser. 

Competitions Involving Alternative Dispute Resolution Skills   

The Law Student Division of the American Bar Association sponsors the annual, national Negotiation Competition, which -- as its name indicates -- focuses on negotiation skills.  Over 180 teams participate in the intra-school, regional, and national-level competitions.

The last time Appalachian School of Law sent teams to the competition, one ASL team tied for 11^thplace nationwide at the national-level competition.  They out-performed teams from Georgetown, Emory University, University of San Diego, University of Tulsa, University of Hastings, TexasTech, University of Houston, and the University of British Columbia.  They also out-performed by five points the team from the University of Missouri-Columbia, which had -- at that time -- the top-ranked ADR program in the United States.  

ASL has also participated in the Representation in Mediation Competition sponsored by the Section of Dispute Resolution of the American Bar Association.  It typically attracts 80 to 100 teams across the country.

The last time ASL sent a team to compete, the team entered the final round of the regional competition with the highest point total of any participating team for the two preceding rounds of the competition.  After the final round, the ASL team placed second in the overall competition.

That year, ninety teams competed at ten regional competitions nationwide. Thus, ASL’s second-place finish in its regional competition put it among the top 18 teams nationwide.

For more information about the ADR-related competitions, contact Assistant Professor Kendall Isaac.  

Easier Access to the 2012 ABA Journal Blawg 100

This morning, I spent several hours reviewing the law blogs (or blawgs) that look interesting to me and adding them to this website so I could track them more easily.  The good news is you can track them more easily, too, by reviewing the list on the right side of this page.

That list will show the name of the blog, the title of the latest posting, and how recently the author posted.

For this research project, I used the list of 100 top legal blogs assembled by the ABA found here.  I focused on the following categories:

• Legal News/Analysis
• Trial Practice
• Business of Law
• Marketing a Law Practice
• Careers/Law School
• Courts, and
• Legal Technology

I hope you find this resource helpful.

ABA Law Practice Management Section

I recently joined the ABA's Law Practice Management Section in an effort to support our graduates who will start solo practices because of the lack of opportunity in law firms and other traditional employers of lawyers in this recessionary economy.  I blogged about the day-long solo practice workshop the Appalachian School of Law offered this past spring here.  I blogged about the employment prospects for new grads here, here, and here.

This past week, I received the section's welcome packet and its May/June 2013 issue of the Law Practice Magazine.  The section focuses on the following four core areas: marketing, management, technology, and finance.  It provides section members with six issues of its "award-winning" hard-copy magazine, a monthly webzine, a bimonthly e-newsletter, and a legal technology blog.  It also focuses on the challenges women face as rainmakers and sells an impressive collection of books.

The May/June issue of the Law Practice Magazine provided excellent content.  I plan to read nearly all the articles.  The ones I have read so far were well written and covered very timely topics in a thoughtful and clear way.  This issue includes the following articles:

• Accelerated Strengths Development (riffing off Tom Rath's "Strengths-Based Leadership" concepts)
• Helping New Grads Be Better Lawyers Faster
• Alternatives to the Partnership Track
• Can we Talk? (about communication in law firms)
• Millennials: What Other Generations Say About You (and What You Can do About it)
• Solving the Multimillion-Dollar C Player Problem, and
• The Secret to Writing Persuasively

The issue also covered "rainmaking circles," engagement letters, promoting the professional development of others, the latest version of a voice recognition technology called Dragon, the use of apps to support courtroom evidentiary presentations using an iPad, tips for teleseminars and webinars, managing receivables, "future-proofing" your law firm, and your firm's governing structure. 

I am especially impressed with the diversity of covered topics and the expertise of the authors.  These folks are keeping up with the important trends in the profession.  I have to say, I look forward to picking it up, when possible, to digest the next bit of advice it offers.  

New grads:  I strongly recommend that you find the money to join the ABA and then this section, if at all possible.  This section can keep you from making many mistakes.  It can also help you become a firm innovator, which will propel your career.  I will post on that topic next.