Introducing 1L students to ADR seems to be giving them some early dividends. For example, one Texas A&M Law student, Ny’esha Young, spent her first summer interning at two law firms, and both had their interns participate in negotiation exercises. Ny’esha was the only member of her teams to have had any negotiation training and therefore knew what to do. She credits ADR Survey, as well as the plea bargaining exercises in Professor Cynthia Alkon’s Criminal Law course, with preparing her to focus first on identifying her client’s needs and interests and then on the negotiation strategies most likely to help her achieve her goals. Ny’esha also felt that the ADR Survey course uniquely prepared her for one firm’s additional negotiation exercise, when she worked with her team to anticipate a potential concern from opposing counsel and offered a responsive mediation clause. Ny’esha ended up with offers from both firms for next summer – due, at least in part, to her negotiation performance!

Integrating Dispute Resolution into Texas A&M’s DNA

In another sign of the integration of dispute resolution into Texas A&M’s culture, the Texas A&M Law Review and Texas A&M Journal of Property Law chose arbitration as the topic of their 2022 write-on competition. In particular, students participating in the competition were required to write a case note on Brice v. Haynes Investments, LLC, a Ninth Circuit case involving a prospective waiver challenge to the enforceability of an arbitration agreement and an effective vindication challenge to the agreement’s delegation provision. Texas A&M Law Review Executive Editor, Charles Garcia, explained that he chose to focus on arbitration “because it is a challenging and highly relevant area of law,” and he wanted to be sure the participating students “had the opportunity to learn about something that affects them in their everyday lives.” He added that he was inspired by taking Professor Guillermo Garcia-Sanchez’s Arbitration class last year. “I certainly would not have chosen this topic if I had not taken his class.”

Professor Michael Green and Texas A&M

A couple of years ago, we thought we were going to lose our wonderful and accomplished colleague, Professor Michael Green, who was considering a move to another city. Thankfully, we were wrong, and he’s staying with us in Fort Worth! We look forward to continuing to benefit from both his wisdom and humor at Texas A&M.

Characteristically, he is focusing his attention on important topics in dispute resolution. In February, 2022, he presented “The Racial Rhythm & Blues of Reforming Police Arbitrations” for the Quinnipiac-Yale Dispute Resolution Workshop, and his resulting article, “Black and Blue Police Arbitration Reforms,” will be published in the Ohio State Law Journal in 2023. He also presented in March, 2022, as part of the Case Western Reserve University Law Review Symposium entitled “Black Transcends Blue: The Intractable Presence of Race in American Policing.” Professor Green is uniquely qualified to write in this area. Besides being an acclaimed scholar regarding both workplace arbitration and the need to increase the selection of diverse arbitrators, he is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators and serves on the police arbitration hearing officer panels of two municipalities.

Constructive Conversations in
Polarized Times

Professor Carol Pauli was an invited panelist at the annual Jed D. Melnick Symposium at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. The theme was “The Death and Resurrection of Dialogue.” In her symposium essay, The ‘End’ of Neutrality, she proposed that—amid radically shifting norms—neutrals must reexamine and reclaim the point of their neutrality. She argued that even party self-determination is not the deepest value, but merely a means to an end. She proposed human dignity as the ultimate value that neutrals serve. 

In her role as our director of diversity, equity and inclusion, Professor Pauli organized a three-day summer workshop on facilitating dialogues about divisive issues for some 20 faculty, students, and staff. The workshop was led by Essential Partners, a nonprofit based in Cambridge, MA. Trainers were Raye Rawls, a longtime lawyer and mediator from the University of Georgia, and Professor Jill DeTemple, chair of religious studies at Southern Methodist University and a panelist and author two years ago for our symposium, “ADR’s Place in Navigating a Polarized Era.”