Tag Archives: Empirical Research

ABA Conference Sessions You Might Enjoy

I love the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution annual conferences. They always put on a wide array of wonderful sessions and it’s a great time to connect with friends, old and new. As in the past, I am listing some sessions that particularly intrigue me.  This reflects my idiosyncratic tastes and it would be a … Continue reading ABA Conference Sessions You Might Enjoy

Conversation Between Julie Macfarlane and Woody Mosten about Unbundling and Self-Represented Litigants

Recently, I did a post about a new book that Forrest (“Woody”) Mosten co-authored about unbundled legal services. Woody just sent me a link to a podcast conversation he had with our friend, Dr. Julie Macfarlane, the director of the National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP).  In this podcast, entitled “Back to the Future of Legal … Continue reading Conversation Between Julie Macfarlane and Woody Mosten about Unbundling and Self-Represented Litigants

Stone Soup, Reflective Practice, Action Research, and Social Justice

Some questions for law professors:  Why did you go to law school?  Why did you decide to go into academia?  What do you want to accomplish in your work?  What do you hope for your students? In this post, I give my answers to these questions, which I think will resonate for many readers of … Continue reading Stone Soup, Reflective Practice, Action Research, and Social Justice

Stone Soup:  A Thousand Great Chefs

  In June, Rafael Gely and I, the co-directors of the Stone Soup Project, decided to shift our approach from our original plan of a centralized database to a decentralized set of experimental efforts to produce knowledge about actual practice – aka letting a thousand chefs cook. I recently talked with many of the faculty who … Continue reading Stone Soup:  A Thousand Great Chefs

Takeaways From New Hampshire Mediation Training

  Recently, Susan Yates and I conducted mediation trainings on behalf of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Judicial Branch Office of Mediation and Arbitration, and the University of New Hampshire, School of Law. As part of the trainings, we collected survey data and focus-group-like comments from … Continue reading Takeaways From New Hampshire Mediation Training

Stone Soup:  Model for Gathering Data at Continuing Education Programs

  Recently, Susan Yates and I conducted mediation trainings on behalf of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Judicial Branch Office of Mediation and Arbitration, and the University of New Hampshire, School of Law. As part of the trainings, we collected survey data and focus-group-like comments from … Continue reading Stone Soup:  Model for Gathering Data at Continuing Education Programs

What Is the Stone Soup(s) Project Really About?

  As a girl scout at heart, I like to make new friends and keep the old ones.  So I really enjoyed the AALS ADR Section Works-in-Progress Conference originated by Andrea Schneider and hosted this year at Arizona State under the able leadership of Art Hinshaw with assistance by Gabriel Velez and Roselle Wissler.  It … Continue reading What Is the Stone Soup(s) Project Really About?

Lessons From the ABA’s Excellent Report on Mediator Techniques

The ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Task Force on Research on Mediator Techniques recently released an excellent report really worth reading.  It should be of value to anyone interested in mediation.  It also provides useful lessons about what we can learn about ADR from empirical research. Superstar ADR empirical researcher Roselle Wissler is the principal … Continue reading Lessons From the ABA’s Excellent Report on Mediator Techniques

New Resolution Systems Institute (RSI) Website

From Resolution Systems Institute My name is Nicole Wilmet and I am the Resource Center Director at Resolution Systems Institute (RSI).  As an organizer of your state’s court ADR program, I am delighted to inform you that RSI, the source for information about court alternative dispute resolution, has a brand new website! At the updated … Continue reading New Resolution Systems Institute (RSI) Website

Kiser’s Soft Skills for the Effective Lawyer

I was really pleased to meet Randall Kiser at last year’s ABA conference.  I was very impressed by his important study (co-authored with Martin Asher and Blakeley McShane), Let’s Not Make a Deal: An Empirical Examination of Decision Making in Unsuccessful Negotiations.  The top-line finding was that in 85.5% of cases, parties went to trial … Continue reading Kiser’s Soft Skills for the Effective Lawyer