Sarah Rudolph Cole B.A., J.D.
Education
- BA, University of Puget Sound, American History, 1986 (cum laude)
- JD, University of Chicago Law School, 1990 (cum laude)
Biography
Sarah Rudolph Cole is the Michael E. Moritz Chair in Alternative Dispute Resolution. She teaches courses in mediation, arbitration, alternative dispute resolution, torts, and labor law.
A nationally prominent expert on alternative dispute resolution, Professor Cole researches and writes about legal and policy issues that arise because of the increased use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in the justice system, particularly arbitration and mediation. Her scholarship has been published in journals including the Washington University Law Review, the UC Davis Law Review, and the Georgia Law Review. Professor Cole is co-author of Mediation: Law, Policy and Practice, the leading treatise in mediation, and of Dispute Resolution: Negotiation, Mediation and Other Processes, one of the country's leading dispute resolution casebooks. She is also a co-author of Dispute Resolution: Examples and Explanations (5th ed. 2025), Discussions in Dispute Resolution: The Foundational Articles, and Discussions in Dispute Resolution: The Next Generation (2000-09).
Professor Cole currently serves as the Scholar-in-Residence for the International Academy of Mediators, a role she will hold until 2028. She is a member of the American Law Institute and an American Bar Foundation Fellow. Additionally, she is a steering member of the Divided Community Project at Moritz College of Law.
Professor Cole received the 2022-23 ABA Section on Dispute Resolution Outstanding Scholarly Work Award. In 2022, she received both the CPR Outstanding Article Award and the Outstanding Book Award, and in 2025, she received the CPR Outstanding Book Award for the second volume of Discussions in Dispute Resolution: The Next Generation (2000-09). In 2013, The Ohio State University awarded her the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching. In 2025, she was inducted into the National Academy of Arbitrators.
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Grande Lum, Craig McEwen & Nancy Rogers, “Framing” in Public Initiatives to Advance Racial Equity, 38 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. 255 (2023)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Virtual Mediation: The Only Door Needed in the Multi-Door Courthouse?, 52 Stetson L. Rev. 477 (2023)
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Art Hinshaw, Andrea Schneider & Sarah Rudolph Cole, Discussions in Dispute Resolution: The Foundational Articles ((2021)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, What Title IX Dispute Systems Designers Can Learn from Arbitration, 13 Penn St. Arb. L. Rev. 1 (2021)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Mediate Your Response: Reconciling the Benefits and Drawbacks of the New Title IX Regulations, 36 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. 633 (2021)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Arbitrator Diversity: Can It Be Achieved?, 98 Wash. U. L. Rev. 965 (2021)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Everything Old is New Again (A Comment on Soia Mentschikoff’s Commercial Arbitration), in Discussions in Dispute Resolution (2021)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Craig A. McEwen, Nancy Rogers, James R. Cohen, Peter N. Thompson & Nadja M. Alexander, Mediation: Law, Policy, and Practice ((3rd ed., 2020-2021)
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Stephen B. Goldberg, Frank E.A. Sander, Nancy Rogers & Sarah Rudolph Cole, Dispute Resolution: Negotiation, Mediation, Arbitration, and Other Processes ((7th ed., 2020)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, The Lost Promise of Arbitration, 70 S.M.U. L. Rev. 849 (2017)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Curbing the Runaway Arbitrator in Commercial Arbitration: Making Exceeding the Powers Count, 68 Ala. L. Rev. 179 (2016)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Blurred Lines: Are Non-Attorneys Who Represent Parties in Arbitrations Involving Statutory Claims Practicing Law?, 48 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 921 (2015)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, The Federalization of Consumer Arbitration: Possible Solutions, 2013 U. Chi. Legal F. 271 (2013)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Let the Grand Experiment Begin: Pyett Authorizes Arbitration of Unionized Employees’ Statutory Discrimination Claims, 14 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 861 (2010)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole & Kristen Blankley, Empirical Research on Consumer Arbitration, 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 1051 (2009)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Fairness in Securities Arbitration: A Constitutional Mandate?, 26 Pace L. Rev. 73 (2006)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole & Kristen M. Blankley, Online Mediation: Where We Have Been, Where We Are Now, and Where We Should Be, 38 U. Tol. L. Rev. 193 (2006)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Arbitration and State Action, 2005 BYU L. Rev. 1 (2005)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole & Kristen Blankley, Arbitration, in The Handbook of Dispute Resolution (2005)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole & E. Gary Spitko, ADR and the Batson Principle, 38 Ga. L. Rev. 1145 (2004)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Nancy Rogers & Joseph B. Stulberg, Sustaining Incremental Expansion: Ohio State's Experience in Developing the Dispute Resolution Curriculum, 50 Fla. L. Rev. 667 (1998)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the (Alternative) Forum: Reexamining Alexander v. Gardner-Denver in the Wake of Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp., 1997 BYU L. Rev. 591 (1997)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Continuation Coverage Under COBRA: A Study in Statutory, 22 J. Legis. 195 (1996)
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Sarah Rudolph Cole, Blackstone's Vision of Alternative Dispute Resolution, 22 Mem. St. U. L. Rev. 279 (1992)