Alternative Dispute Resolution
Certificate in Dispute Resolution
The purpose of the Certificate in Dispute Resolution is to provide our graduates expertise in the dispute resolution field. Demand for lawyers with dispute resolution expertise has grown steadily over the last decade. The use of dispute resolution processes increasingly is part of the practice of law.
The broader community is also well served by lawyers with expertise in collaborative means to resolve disputes. Americans are pleased with the independence and integrity of their court system, but they yearn for processes of resolving civil disputes that are less expensive and less laden with procedure. They want processes that gather the real parties in interest together, face-to-face, early in the dispute to discuss the issues that have divided them. Americans also are concerned that their businesses will be disadvantaged in the world market by their comparably higher litigation expenses.
To secure the Certificate in Dispute Resolution, law students must earn 15 semester hours of course work related to development of expertise in dispute resolution. These hours may be counted toward the 88 hours required for the Juris Doctor degree. All courses listed for the Certificate are electives for law students. The 15 required hours must include two specific courses required for the certificate. Also, the student must complete a non-credit externship.
First, each student must earn credit for a clinical course in mediation, representing not only skills training in this important process but also work mediating actual disputes with feedback and analysis by the faculty. The clinical courses are co-taught by a regular faculty member and a supervising attorney, with a one to eight faculty-student ratio. One mediation clinic has mediated small claims cases for about fifteen years. Our multi-party mediation clinic facilitates resolution of multi-party, complex disputes, such as the location of a shelter for homeless persons.
Second, each student must take the capstone course, Advanced Studies in Dispute Resolution. In this course, students will write a substantial paper that deals in an original way with a major issue in the dispute resolution field. We believe that those who hold the Certificate should be prepared to make innovative contributions to the field as they practice within it.
Third, each student is encouraged to take Law and Social Science or, with the approval of the faculty administrator and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, either earn credit for a comparable course while enrolled in the College of Law. While this course is recommended rather than required, we believe the course is important for those who will design dispute resolution systems for clients because it prepares the student for critical use of social science assessments of program effectiveness.
Finally, each student must complete an approved externship in the field. Although a student may be compensated for her externship, the student will not receive academic credit for the externship. The student will be required to make a proposal for this 112-hour requirement, first to the Director of the Program on Dispute Resolution and then to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. We have investigated placements and found that these students can be used to mediate, conduct research, and teach dispute resolution in the schools. Through the externship, students will gain experience beyond that of the required clinical course in mediation, while still under the guidance of law faculty.
In addition to the courses described above, the following courses have been approved as fitting within the Certificate: Negotiation (offered for either 1 hour or 3-4 hours), Mediation ( the 4-hour practicum described above), Lawyering Within Dispute Resolution Processes (2 or 3 hours), Dispute Systems Design (3 hours), Issues in Arbitration Seminar (2 hours); Commercial and Labor Arbitration (2 or 3 hours), Jurisprudence in ADR Seminar (2 hours), Inter-Ethnic Conflicts Seminar (2 hours, offered every other year), Comparative Dispute Resolution (3 hours), Dispute Resolution Ethics (2 hours), and International Dispute Resolution (3 hours). Students can also receive credit toward the Certificate for three of the up to five credit hours that can be earned for work on the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution.