Mediation Practicum

Modern legal practice not only requires knowledge of how to manage a case in the courtroom, but also how to advocate for a client sitting across from an opponent at the mediation table. In addition, some legally trained professionals wish to work as neutrals in various dispute resolution processes. The mediation practicum courses at Moritz, through classroom lessons and clinical experiences, prepare students to carry out these roles in mediation and facilitation processes.

Annually rated in US News & World Report as one of the top five law school programs on alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in the nation, Moritz professors apply their practical experience and numerous scholarly contributions in the ADR field to the practicum courses. Moritz’s tenured or tenure-track ADR faculty, Professors Sarah Cole, Nancy Rogers, Josh Stulberg, Ellen Deason, or Amy Cohen, and a clinical staff attorney, currently Moritz’s Langdon Fellow in Dispute Resolution, team teach the mediation practica.

In the classroom, students study the legal, ethical, and policy issues that have emerged with the increased use of mediation and other facilitation processes for the resolution of disputes. After receiving extensive mediation skills training, students, observed by the clinic staff attorney, mediate disputes at the Franklin County Municipal Court Small Claims Division at its day-of-trial and pre-filing mediation programs and at the Columbus City Attorney’s Office Prosecution Resources Unit Mediation Program. After each mediation, students discuss their mediations with the staff attorney so that they can ask questions and receive feedback based on the staff attorney’s observations during the mediation.

Each semester, Moritz students mediate between 50 and 100 cases and help over 60% of the disputing parties resolve their disputes through mediated agreement. The classroom component and clinical experience occur during the same semester, which allows students to apply the classroom lessons to actual mediations and enrich the classroom exercises and discussions by sharing the insights gained from the mediations.

Moritz offers a mediation practicum course every semester in the form of the Mediation Practicum/Seminar or the Multi-Party Mediation Practicum. Students participating in either course will meet twice a week for class and must have at least one afternoon available (excluding Fridays) and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday evening free for clinic activity. Students are also required to attend the mandatory mediation skills weekend training session held at the beginning of each semester. This training includes lecture, discussion, and exercises covering the steps of a mediation process and the skills a mediator uses while carrying out these steps. The topics covered include: drafting and executing an opening statement, acknowledging and paraphrasing parties’ statements, framing issues for negotiation, caucusing, and gathering information for the purpose of helping the parties generate movement. The training also consists of several one to two hour mediation role play sessions where the students take turns mediating a fact scenario, while a professional mediator from the Columbus area observes and provides feedback to each student regarding his/her mediation technique and use of the process.

Because the Mediation Practicum/Seminar and the Multi-Party Mediation Practicum cover similar subject matter, students who complete one of the mediation practicum courses may not enroll in the other practicum. The topics covered in these two courses, however, are not identical. In the Mediation Practicum/Seminar students spend the semester focusing on mediation theory and practice and its application to disputes between two parties. The Multi-Party Mediation Practicum course starts by examining two party mediations, but then discusses the contributions law trained individuals can make in resolving complex, multi-party disputes. Completing one of the practicum courses also satisfies a requirement of Moritz’s Certificate in Dispute Resolution.

With a nationally ranked ADR program, 10 full time faculty who regularly offer a dispute resolution course, and 5 full time professors who teach mediation, students who participate in the mediation practicum will be prepared when they are advocating for a client during a mediation or conducting a mediation process.