Our series My Favorite Resource, features interviews with ADR friends across the country to learn about their favorite resources. This month, I spoke with Alyson Carrel, RSI Board Member and Clinical Associate Professor and Assistant Director of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Center on Negotiation and Mediation, to learn about her favorite ADR resource.
NW: What is one of your favorite ADR resources?
AC: One of my favorite ADR resources is the Dispute Resolution Resources for Legal Educators section of the University of Missouri Law School’s Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution website.
NW: Why do you value this particular resource?
AC: This resource is a one-stop-shop with almost everything a person might need when they take on the daunting task of teaching or teaching a new class for the first time. While some textbooks include a teacher’s manual with a sample syllabus and a set of exercises, not all textbooks do. And even those that do present a single perspective on how best to teach a subject. But this website provides sample syllabi from multiple legal educators across the country (and the world) for multiple courses (including unique iterations of those courses). For instance, there are at least 30 mediation syllabi posted on the website, and another 30 syllabi for more unusual or specialized courses such as “Mediation and Collaborative Lawyering: Consensual Dispute Resolution” or “Introduction to Dispute Resolution in Healthcare.”
NW: How did you first learn about this resource?
AC: This resource is regularly referenced on its corresponding listserv, Dispute Resolution for Legal Educators listserv (DRLE), yet another fantastic resource available through Missouri’s website. The listserv is a place for individuals teaching a Dispute Resolution course in the legal education context to ask questions, provide answers, and share new information and tidbits. (Those interested in applying to the listserv can email listserv@po.missouri.edu and in the body of the email write: subscribe DRLE.)
NW: For those unfamiliar with this resource, what is one part of this resource you wouldn’t want someone to miss?
AC: I would absolutely make sure to check out the Teaching Materials section of the website. I previously described the extensive set of simulations and exercises posted on the site, but you will also find links to other teaching resources compiled by the ABA, Suffolk University and more. Instead of having to remember all the different resources out there, Missouri has gathered them all in one place: Dwight Golann’s “class in a box” provides a folder with simulations, teaching notes and corresponding videos; the ABA has a list of exercises for “lawyer as problem-solver”; and Mitchell-Hamline’s video re-enactments of legal cases involving mediation ethics.
I often receive emails from individuals teaching for the first time, asking me for advice and guidance. The first thing I do is send them to this site. It is simply the best and most comprehensive site for ADR teaching resources.
