WilliaM S. BoYD SCHool of laW
SalTMan CenTer for ConfliCT reSoluTion The Desert Talking Piece Fall 2014
Saltman Center Celebrates 10 Years
•
Nelson Mandela: Making Peace with Your Enemy
•
Psychology and lawyering: Coalescing the Field
•
water law in the west: The Importance of Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW
university of nevada, las Vegas, William THE S. Boyd School of law DESERT TALKING PIECE 1
The Desert Talking Piece Fall 2014
Happy Birthday! Saltman Center celebrates 10th anniversary
T
his year the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution celebrates 10 years of academic excellence. Founded with a very generous gift from Michael and Sonja Saltman, the Center has hosted numerous events, trained countless students, resolved a broad variety of disputes, and won multiple awards. Ranked among the top 10 law school dispute resolution programs in the nation, the Center was also named best dispute resolution program in the region by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2008. Jean Sternlight, who has directed the Center throughout its lifetime, says the Center’s many successes are attributable to the great talents and energy of its students, its faculty, and the Saltmans themselves. “We are so fortunate to have sponsors like Mike and Sonja who not only provide financial support but, even more important, energy, great ideas, and fabulous contacts,” says Director Sternlight. “With the Saltmans’ help we have been able to attract wonderful speakers such as Tom Friedman, Daniel Schorr, Linda Wertheimer, Dennis Ross, John Paul Lederach, and Haleh Esfandiari, and we have also been able to forge connections with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.” “Professor Jean Sternlight, Mike and Sonja Saltman, and our faculty, students, and community partners have made the UNLV Boyd School of Law a nationally recognized center for dispute resolution,” says Daniel Hamilton, dean of the Boyd School of Law. “The Saltman Center provides critical support to the community and promotes cutting-edge research. The 10th anniversary celebration will be a great event, and we invite the community to join us in honoring one of the signature successes at the law school.” The Saltman Center has distinguished itself in legal academia by hosting numerous important talks and conferences, many of which have led to important written publications in the Nevada Law Journal. The most recent conference, on psychology and lawyering, helped found a growing
2 SALTMAN CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
new field, bringing together academics and practitioners from throughout the world (see Page 5). Past symposia have focused on such issues as strife in the Middle East, the economic crisis, the dangers of mandatory arbitration, and conflicts over essential natural resources such as the Colorado River. The Center has also attracted an impressive range of nationally recognized scholars and practitioners who have served as members of the Boyd School of Law faculty or visiting fellows, taught in the Center’s Summer Institute, or given lectures to faculty and students. While the list is too long to name everyone, these faculty have included Deans Jennifer Brown, Chris Guthrie, and Michael Moffitt, and Professors Hal Abramson, Lisa Blomgren Amsler, Clark Freshman, Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Robert Mnookin, Ray Patterson, Peter Reilly, Len Riskin, Jennifer Robbennolt, Andrea Schneider, and Nancy Welsh, together with many, many others. Students working with the Center have learned the tremendous power of nonlitigation approaches to conflict resolution. Through their classes and extracurricular activities, the students have come to better understand the importance of discerning clients’ underlying interests and how lawyers can work creatively to serve those interests. For example, Saltman Center Associate Director Lydia Nussbaum reports that students in the Strasser Mediation Clinic, which she directs, “mediated more than 135 divorce and small claims cases in 2013-2014 and received substantial positive feedback from participants and judges.” She also observes that the clinic provides students with “a much more complex understanding of what drives legal disputes and what they, as future lawyers, can do to effectively counsel and represent their clients.” In addition, on multiple occasions, teams of students have placed first, second or third in the national American Bar Association Client Counseling Competition, twice going on to represent the United States in the international competition.
Saltman Center Director JEAN STERNLIGHT
TOM FRIEDMAN
www.law.unlv.edu
michael and Sonja saltman
daniel schorr
Former General Manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority Patricia Mulroy, Boyd School of Law Dean Daniel Hamilton, AND Saltman Center Director JEAN STERNLIGHT
Boyd School of Law Supporters Named 2014 Distinguished Nevadans Michael and Sonja Saltman are the co-founders of the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution at the Boyd School of Law. On March 7, they were named to the 2014 Distinguished Nevadans list released by the Nevada System of Higher Education. The Distinguished Nevadan is the most prestigious award given by the Board of Regents. It is awarded to those who have made significant achievements contributing to Nevada’s cultural, scientific or social advancement.
WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW
streetball hafla film screening: Examining potential for basketball to Promote Peace in Israel
THE DESERT TALKING PIECE
3
The Desert Talking Piece Fall 2014
SYMPOSIUM
Making Peace With Your Enemy: Celebrating Nelson Mandela and his contributions to conflict resolution
R
4 SALTMAN CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
elections and creation of a unitary government, with Mandela winning the presidency in 1994. For these efforts Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. As South Africa’s first black president, Mandela saw national reconciliation as his primary task. He therefore took steps to help the former enemies begin to resolve their deep differences, forgive one another to the extent possible, and live and work together productively. For example, Mandela helped create the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in which former adversaries could confront one another and explain their various perspectives, learn the truth about past crimes, as well as potentially obtain amnesty. He also urged black South Africans to support the previously all-white rugby team, the Springboks, which had been a hated symbol of white rule. To explore Mandela’s contributions, the Center will sponsor a public event on Nov. 1, 2014 entitled “Making Peace with Your Enemy: Nelson Mandela and his Contributions to Conflict Resolution.” Speakers at the event will be leaders in the
www.law.unlv.edu
mandela:istock.com
ather than host a traditional party to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution will mark the occasion by heralding the contributions of Nelson Mandela to the field of conflict resolution and considering how Mandela’s insights may help resolve present-day problems. Mandela, who died in December 2013, was a lawyer and antiapartheid revolutionary who fought against the white supremacist regime in South Africa and brokered peace with that regime after having been jailed for 27 years. Mandela’s effort to negotiate a peaceful transition to democracy with apartheid leader F.W. de Klerk was understandably highly controversial, as it rose out of numerous bloody confrontations between activists seeking to destroy apartheid and the white South Africans seeking to maintain that same system. Yet Mandela famously stated in his memoir, A Long Walk to Freedom: “To make peace with an enemy one must work with that enemy, and that enemy becomes one’s partner.” The interim Constitution negotiated by Mandela and de Klerk allowed for open
field of conflict resolution and experts on South Africa. Carrie Menkel-Meadow, one of the founders of the legal discipline of conflict resolution and now Chancellor’s Professor of Law at UC Irvine, will address “Nelson Mandela’s Procedural Transition From (Violent) Cause Activist to Peace and Justice Seeking Activist.” Robert Mnookin, Samuel Williston Professor of Law and Chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, will draw from his book Negotiating with the Devil to discuss “Nelson Mandela’s Decision to Bargain with the Devil.” Richard Goldstone, a former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former chief prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, will give a talk entitled “Nelson Mandela’s Skills in Conflict Negotiation: A Personal Reflection.” Penelope Andrews, who grew up “colored” in apartheid South Africa, and is now dean at Albany Law School, will speak on “Nelson Mandela, Forgiveness and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” Professor Andrea Schneider of the Marquette University Law School, as moderator will help the speakers draw lessons from Mandela’s work for current, seemingly intransigent, disputes in places such as the Middle East or Ukraine. The webcast will be available at law.unlv. edu/SaltmanCenter10YearAnniversary
CONFERENCE
Birth of a Field?
Psychology and lawyering conference attracts international interest
I
n February 2014, the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution hosted a conference that may lead to longlasting changes in both lawyering and legal academia. Entitled “Psychology and Lawyering: Coalescing the Field,” the conference brought together more than 100 lawyers and psychologists from both academia and practice to discuss how increased knowledge of psychology might help lawyers represent their clients more effectively. Including faculty and attendees from around the world, the conference generated great enthusiasm, and conferees left with new colleagues, dreams, and the beginning of plans for future similar events. While academics and practitioners in various corners of law and psychology have been considering how psychology can improve lawyers’ skills and well-being, no prior single conference had ever tried to join together these disparate pieces. For example, Saltman Center Director Jean Sternlight’s book, Psychology for Lawyers (with Jennifer Robbennolt, ABA 2012), was an important inspiration for the conference but does not cover all the subjects that were touched on at the event. The book focuses on cognitive and social psychology, but the conference also included clinical psychology, neuroscience, and mindfulness.
Saltman Center Director Jean Sternlight
WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW
Over the course of two days, the conferees attended sessions on lawyer decisionmaking, the psychology of client relations, the teaching of relational competencies and emotional intelligence, lawyer performance and judging, the psychology of legal ethics, how to conduct psychology research, the psychology of persuasion, client perceptions of process and fairness, witness testimony, and attorney well-being. Yale Professor Tom Tyler gave the keynote address entitled “Legitimacy and the Exercise of Legal Authority.” Those who missed the event can watch it online by visiting law.unlv.edu/ PsychologyLawyering2014. Many papers
presented at the conference will be published in a future issue of the Nevada Law Journal. One of the key events at the conference was a working lunch focused on next steps. Participants unanimously expressed that efforts should be made to further grow and coalesce the nascent field of psychology and lawyering. Suggestions for how to realize this dream ranged from listservs and blogs to new organizations and future events. Some of these plans have already been accomplished. “We are pleased with the positive outcomes of this conference, which proved to be an enjoyable and rewarding experience for participants, many of whom praised the content and our organization,” Director Sternlight said. “In this regard, we are especially grateful for the work of our Saltman Center administrator, Sandra Rodriguez, who masterminded the logistics of the conference. We are also extremely appreciative of the major financial support provided by UC Davis School of Law and the University of Illinois program on Law, Behavior and Social Science, and for the additional support provided by Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis.” To view panel discussions or view presentation materials, visit www.law.unlv. edu/PsychologyLawyering2014
keynote speaker tom tyler
THE DESERT TALKING PIECE
5
The Desert Talking Piece Fall 2014
Panel discussion
Water Law in the West: The importance of negotiation and conflict resolution
W Patricia Mulroy, former general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority
ater levels at Lake Mead continue to decline and lingering drought plagues the Western United States. Water law is one tool that states and municipalities can use to solve these issues, but is law enough? Last September, the William S. Boyd School of Law in conjunction with the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution addressed this issue in a panel discussion with former General Manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority Patricia Mulroy entitled “Water Law in the West.” In his opening remarks, Boyd School of Law Dean Daniel Hamilton proposed that litigation and lawsuits were not the solution. “The clock is ticking,” said Dean Hamilton. “Negotiation and conflict resolution will be the tool to
resolve our water issues.” Joining Mulroy was Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and Professor Michele Straube, director of the Wallace Stegner Center for Environmental Dispute Resolution Program of the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. The panel presented a cautionary yet optimistic message for legal resolution of the water crisis. According to Mulroy, the Colorado River represents a shining example of collaboration. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” said Mulroy, referring to the collective work between the seven Western states involved in water allocation. To view the panel discussion, visit www.law.unlv. edu/WaterLaw2013
SPOTLIGHT Summer Institute in
Dispute Resolution 2014
I
n a commitment to provide a wide range of course offerings, the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution established the Summer Institute in 2010. Now celebrating its fifth season, the Summer Institute is an intensive annual program consisting of high quality, short courses on issues related to alternative dispute resolution. Summer Institute courses are open to law or graduate students, attorneys, and other professionals and have attracted students and faculty from all over the country. “We established the Summer Institute
6 SALTMAN CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Summer Institute in Dispute Resolution Popular program celebrates fifth season to provide excellent dispute resolution teaching to not only our own students, but also to law students and professionals from around the country,” said Saltman Center Director Jean Sternlight. “We believe students can benefit from sharing a classroom experience with practitioners and professionals, as well as other students.” Summer Institute participants have had the opportunity to study an array of topics led by a distinguished list of visiting and resident faculty. Intimate class sizes provide one-on-one interaction with professors and class participants, while the condensed course schedule provides focused training on a single topic. In the past five years, the Summer Institute has provided an array of course offerings geared to many facets of conflict resolution. Previous seasons featured topics
ranging from international negotiations and mediations to international commercial arbitration; from sports law dispute resolution to divorce mediation. Other courses focused on interpersonal dynamics for attorneys; interviewing, counseling and negotiation; and collaborative law. Additionally, courses addressed issues such as representing clients in mediation and dealing with difficult clients. The 2014 season, which ran from May 27 to July 20, offered four courses: public policy and environmental dispute resolution, securities dispute resolution, conflict resolution in the criminal context; and mediation advocacy. Courses ran consecutively in three- to six-day sessions. Students earned one or two law school credits per course, while professionals earned 12 or 24 hours of Nevada Continuing Legal Education credit. www.law.unlv.edu
Hands-On Focus
In-House Negotiation Contest gives students real-world experience
P
reparing students for professional life is an important aspect of academic training, and competition can augment and test a hopeful attorney’s negotiation skills. For the past seven years, Las Vegas attorneys and judges have volunteered their time and experience to judge the William S. Boyd School of Law’s In-House Negotiation Competition. This year student teams negotiated scenarios of contract law and the sale of goods and services while local attorneys and Boyd alumni judged the competition. At the end of the competition, students received feedback on how teams performed and what techniques could be improved. “After each simulated negotiation, we talked with the competition judges,” said Ashleigh Wise, who is in her second year at the Boyd School of Law. “Our judges told my partner and me that we behaved like a real team and were impressed with how well we worked together. They couldn’t believe that we had never worked together before.”
2013-2014 Academic Year
14
Wise and teammate Jennifer Lanahan won this year’s competition and will represent Boyd at the ABA Regional Competition later this fall. Competitions such as these also provide students with an opportunity to interact with members of the local law community and break away from the rigors of study. “It was tremendously exciting,” Lanahan said. “We got to slip into ‘lawyer mode’ as opposed to the usual
The Strasser Mediation Clinic
By the Numbers ...
graduating law students from the day and evening programs
40
Final Round Competitors with Competition Organizers
hours of mediation training and observation for each student
WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW
59
divorce and/or child custody cases for the Clark County Family Court
75
student role.” The In-House Negotiation Competition was sponsored by the Saltman Center and the Clark County Bar Association. Additional support was provided by Bank of Nevada. 2013-2014 Mediation Clinic Students at Graduation
100
+
people who achieved full resolution of their conflicts after being aided by UNLV Law students
co-mediated small claims cases with staff mediators at the Clark County Neighborhood Justice Center
THE DESERT TALKING PIECE
7
The Desert Talking Piece Fall 2014
Guest Speaker
Lessons on Language of Conflict Ken Cloke on his latest book, The Dance of Opposites
R
enowned mediator, attorney, teacher, and Director of the Center for Dispute Resolution Ken Cloke spoke to an audience of more than 80 people for a talk hosted by the Saltman Center on March 3, 2014. Cloke discussed some of the concepts explored in his latest book, The Dance of Opposites: Exploration in Mediation, Dialogue, and Conflict Resolution Systems Design. Cloke explained that this book moves beyond the basic precepts of mediation practice. It draws on research from the fields of linguistics, psychology, neurophysiology, religion, and many others to re-examine the nature of conflict and the work mediators do to manage it. He also suggested that mediation has much to offer when addressing contemporary challenges, such as global warming and political discord. Cloke’s remarks focused primarily on the language of conflict. Agreeing with Mark Twain’s observation that “kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see,” Cloke used examples to il-
8 SALTMAN CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
lustrate how deconstructing the language of conflict by its grammar, syntax, myth, archetype, and metaphor exposes the deeper meaning of the parties’ conflict. From the pronouns we use to the metaphors we reference, language is charged with emotional content. By examining the
language of conflict communications, mediators and dialogue facilitators gain insight into what the conflict means to each individual and what interventions are likely to be effective. To watch a webcast of Cloke’s talk, visit law.unlv.edu/saltman/webcasts www.law.unlv.edu
guest speaker
We Can Do Better Than Naming and Shaming Stephan Sonnenberg applies principles of conflict resolution to human rights
O
n Sept. 9, 2013, the Saltman Center hosted Stephan Sonnenberg, clinical lecturer at Stanford Law School, who delivered a dynamic talk on how principles of conflict resolution can be used to address human rights violations. He and his coauthor explore this issue in their article, “Name, Shame, and Then Build Consensus? Bringing Conflict Resolution Skills to Human Rights” (39 Wash. U. J.L. & Pol’y 257 (2012)). Traditionally, the fields of conflict resolution and human rights employ distinct, and sometimes opposing, approaches
to resolving crimes against humanity. Human rights practitioners bring attention to abuses (“naming”) and then condemn perpetrators’ acts (“shaming”) through publicity campaigns or adversarial court cases. Dispute resolution practitioners, on the other hand, focus on consensus building by identifying all interested parties and facilitating discussion about how to end human rights violations and redress the harms. Sonnenberg posits that in a world of increasing globalization and complex social systems, a purely human rights approach to stopping human rights
violations is ineffective. Rarely is there a single perpetrator that can be brought to justice through shaming. Instead, he argues for a hybrid approach that uses human rights tools of publicity and documentation as well as dispute resolution tools of stakeholder identification, facilitated dialogue, and problem-solving to end human rights atrocities. This combined approach allows for creative solutions that lead to greater sustained peace throughout the world. To watch a webcast of Sonnenberg’s lecture, visit law.unlv.edu/saltman/webcasts
guest speaker
FAIR OUTCOMES A RESULT OF CONSENT ... OR LUCK? Jennifer Reynolds on how to improve justice in mediation
P
rofessor Jennifer Reynolds, faculty director of the ADR Center at the University of Oregon School of Law, visited the Saltman Center on Oct. 7, 2013 to present her work on why mediation outcomes do not necessarily advance social justice, an issue she writes about in her article “Luck v. Justice: Consent Intervenes, but for Whom?” (14 Pepp. Disp. Resol. L.J. 93 (2014)). Given the rhetoric of party self-determination and autonomy in mediation, it is reasonable to think that people who agree to settlement terms in mediation consent to those terms because people believe they are fair. But, as Professor Reynolds argues, parties’ consent to mediation out-
WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW
comes has a lot more to do with luck than with justice. Assuming otherwise has serious consequences for access to justice at the “low end of the civil justice market,” where, says Professor Reynolds, the vast majority of society’s civic concerns are found. Using examples from actual small claims mediations, Professor Reynolds demonstrates how factors like mediator quality, mediation context — existing legal doctrine, lack of information, confusing background rules, or time pressure — and mediation participant “quality” influence a mediation session’s outcome in unpredictable ways. Peeling back the familiar dispute resolution narrative that mediation out-
comes advance justice because they necessarily rely on consent, choice, and self-determination reveals that mediation outcomes really depend on a lucky combination of factors rather than mediation participants’ own actions. Ultimately, Professor Reynolds argues that this element of chance should be removed from consent-based processes like mediation through improving mediator quality, standardizing mediation processes, and increasing participants’ “consent literacy” through public education about concepts of self-determination and what meaningful engagement in consent-based processes looks like.
THE DESERT TALKING PIECE
9
The Desert Talking Piece Fall 2014
student spotlight
Introducing the Saltman Center Fellows
New Hire
Meet the Saltman Center’s New Graduate Fellow Jeanette “Jae” Barrick
T
he Saltman Center is delighted to welcome Jae Barrick as its new graduate fellow. Barrick graduated from the Boyd School of Law (Class of 2013) and is a trained mediator and practicing attorney in the law firm of Gallian Welker and Beckstrom, L.C. in Las Vegas. As a graduate fellow, Barrick will supervise students in the Mediation Clinic, coach students in preparation for ABA Negotiation and Client Counseling competitions, as well as supervise the Saltman Parking Arbitration Program. Prior to becoming a graduate fellow, Barrick worked closely with the Strasser Mediation Clinic as an adjunct teaching assistant in the Clinic and as a mentor for the Clark County Neighborhood Justice Center’s Basic Mediation Training program. Barrick brings a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to assisting marginalized groups. As she explains, “I have long been a passionate advocate for increasing access to justice for foster children, military veterans, and inmates and am completely dedicated to using alternative methods of dispute resolution to empower individuals and advance social justice. This is a great opportunity to teach the next generation of attorneys about ADR and to be part of the Boyd community. I am excited to be here!”
10 SALTMAN CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Las Vegas native Stephanie Getler recently completed her first year at the Boyd School of Law as a full time student. Getler received her bachelor’s degree in political science and environmental studies from the University of Nevada, Reno. Getler is an active member of Phi Alpha Delta and elected Justice for the 2014-15 school year. She is also involved with Students United for Diversity in the Law (SUDL) and will be the 2014-15 Secretary. Getler spent her summer working as a legal intern for the Office of the Nevada Attorney General in the Bureau of Litigation, Nevada Department of Corrections. She is also working as a judicial intern for Eighth Judicial District Court Judge Valorie J. Vega. As a Saltman fellow, Getler looks forward to advancing the work of The Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution. Amy L. Horne came to the Boyd School of Law after a career in natural resources and environmental policy, including positions at the Environmental Law Institute, the U.S. Forest Service, and a California Governor’s appointment to a Regional Water
Quality Control Board. Horne also authored a book about sustainable rural economic development. Her interest in dispute resolution began when she worked on a large ecosystem management program for the U.S. Forest Service. She was surprised to discover that presenting scientific research did not always result in consensus among loggers, county supervisors, and environmentalists. Horne, who earned a Ph.D. in Forest Ecology from Yale University, came to the Boyd School of Law to deepen her understanding and skills in helping people resolve disputes.
day tasks of lawyers,
Las Vegas native Allison Vitangeli has always aspired to be a lawyer. A third-year law student at the Boyd School of Law, Vitangeli earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Psychology from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She returned to Las Vegas and worked as a legal secretary before attending Boyd as a part-time evening student. While enrolled in Professor Sternlight’s course on psychology and lawyering, Vitangeli learned how psychology can play a role in every-
come Taxpayer Clinic at
especially in the realm of alternative dispute resolution. As a Saltman fellow, Vitangeli looks forward to helping the Boyd community engage in the events hosted by the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution. After graduation, Vitangeli plans to practice criminal law. A second-year law student at the Boyd School of Law, Ashleigh Wise became interested in alternative dispute
resolution (ADR) while working at the Low InNevada Legal Services. While working there, she realized how tax law has its own distinct sets of ADR tools and now she aspires to learn other genres of conflict resolution. As a Saltman fellow, Wise hopes to learn more about ADR and participate as a negotiation team member of Boyd’s Society of Advocates. Currently, Wise is working at the local IRS chief counsel’s office. www.law.unlv.edu
FACULTY Spotlight
the Round-Up Director Jean Sternlight wraps a successful, active year and looks ahead to the Saltman Center’s 10th anniversary
D
Jean Sternlight Director of the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution and Michael and Sonja Saltman Professor of Law jean.sternlight@unlv.edu
irector Jean Sternlight has been talking a lot in the past year. She gave presentations pertaining to how psychology can help lawyers be more ethical and more effective to various audiences: criminal defense attorneys, law librarians, participants in an ABA teleconference, and attendees at the Annual Conference of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. Sounding another theme, Director Sternlight provided negotiation tips to women and women attorneys involved in the Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys and the UNLV Women’s Council. In a third area, Sternlight spoke and moderated at conferences at Cardozo School of Law and Berkeley School of Law, arguing that employers’ use of mandatory arbitration clauses is suppressing employees’ claims and denying them access to justice. In addition to talking a lot, Director Sternlight has been putting her ideas down on paper. Thanks to a research leave in the
spring of 2014, Director Sternlight has completed two articles. The first article, tentatively entitled “Psychology and Effective Lawyering: Insights for Legal Educators,” argues that more law schools and more law school professors should endeavor to teach social and cognitive psychology to law students. It is co-authored with Professor Jennifer Robbennolt from the University of Illinois College of Law and will be published in the Journal of Legal Education. The second article is tentatively entitled “Disarming Employees: How American Employers are Using Mandatory Arbitration to Deprive Workers of Legal Protection.” Of course, Director Sternlight was also busy directing the Saltman Center. Her administrative highlight was orchestrating the highly successful conference on psychology and lawyering described elsewhere in this issue. Now planning begins for this year’s 10th anniversary celebration and the conference to honor Nelson Mandela’s contributions to the world of conflict resolution.
Lydia Nussbaum’s first year at UNLV productive, insightful
L
Lydia Nussbaum Associate Director of the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution, Director of the Strasser Mediation Clinic, and Associate Professor of Law lydia.nussbaum@unlv.edu
WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW
ydia Nussbaum’s first year as associate director of the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution proved fast-paced and exhilarating. After experiencing her first blazing Las Vegas summer, Professor Nussbaum taught the Mediation Clinic in both the fall and spring semesters. She also developed and taught a brand-new elective for first-year law students called Perspectives on Conflict Resolution that examines a variety of legal disputes and the benefits and challenges of available dispute resolution processes. Near and far, Professor Nussbaum attended conferences and made presentations on a variety of topics related to her scholarship interests. She presented at the Global Alliance for Justice Education Conference at Jindal Global Law School outside of Delhi, India, with former colleagues Jane Murphy and Rob Rubinson from the University of Baltimore on how the “informal justice system” of courtconnected mediation affects low-income communities. At the Association of American
Law Schools Alternative Dispute Resolution Section Works in Progress Conference at Cardozo School of Law in New York, Professor Nussbaum talked about how state legislatures are increasingly using mediation as a tool for regulating disputants’ behavior, particularly in the foreclosure mediation context. And in Las Vegas, Professor Nussbaum joined Saltman Center Director Jean Sternlight in presenting to campus faculty, students and staff on negotiation and gender norms for the UNLV Women’s Council lecture series. In her role as associate director of the Saltman Center, Professor Nussbaum helped host the first-ever Psychology and Lawyering Conference. She also organized the In-house Negotiation Competition, worked as a faculty co-adviser for the Saltman Dispute Resolution Society, and helped the William S. Boyd School of Law negotiation team prepare for the National Sports Law Negotiation Competition and the American Bar Association Regional Negotiation Competition. THE DESERT TALKING PIECE
11
WILLIAM S. BOYD SCHOOL OF LAW
SALTMAN CENTER FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
The Desert Talking Piece Fall 2014
INSIDE 8 Lessons on Language of Conflict: Ken Cloke’s The Dance of Opposites 9 We Can Do Better Than Naming and Shaming 9 Fair Outcomes a Result of Consent ... or Luck? 10 Meet the Saltman Center’s New Graduate Fellow: Jeanette “Jae” Barrick
6 Summer Institute in Dispute Resolution Celebrates Fifth Season
10 Introducing the Saltman Center Fellows
7 In-house Negotiation Contest Gives Students Real-World Experience 7 The Strasser Mediation Clinic by the Numbers
11 Faculty Round-up
Facebook “f ” Logo
CMYK / .ai
Facebook “f ” Logo
Feb. 9, 2015 Saltman Center Guest Speaker: Sharon Press, Hamline’s director of the Dispute Resolution Institute, will talk on “Building and Maintaining a Statewide Mediation Program: Why and How” For more information, visit www.law.unlv.edu/saltman/upcoming-events
CMYK / .ai
Visit our Facebook page at facebook.com/unlvlawsaltmancenter
William S. Boyd School of Law saltman center for conflict resolution 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, box 451003 las vegas, nv 89154-1003
6 Water Law in the West
Nov. 1, 2014 Saltman Center 10th Anniversary Celebration: “Making Peace with Your Enemy: Nelson Mandela and His Contributions to Conflict Resolution”
Saltman Center 10th Anniversary Celebration Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014 | 3:00 p.m. UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law
5 Psychology and Lawyering: Coalescing the Field
In celebration of its 10th anniversary, the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution presents Making Peace with Your Enemy: Nelson Mandela and His Contributions to Conflict Resolution
4 Nelson Mandela: Making Peace with Your Enemy
Sept. 15, 2014 Saltman Center Guest Speaker: Donna Shestowsky from UC Davis School of Law on “The Psychology of Procedural Preference: How Litigants Evaluate Legal Procedures Ex Ante”
For more information and to RSVP, go to law.unlv.edu/SaltmanCenter10YearAnniversary
2 Saltman Center Celebrates 10 Years
EVENTS