Mediation ClinicFounded: Penn Law's Mediation Clinic was one of the first real case programs of its kind in the nation. The Mediation Clinic focuses on developing students' skills and addresses the role and ethical issues in the mediation function. Mediation involves the intervention of a neutral third party into an existing or threatened dispute, with the aim of facilitating a negotiated resolution of the conflict. Lawyers are increasingly immersed in this arena, both as mediators and as traditional representatives of clients whose matters are subject to a mediation resolution. It is also a subject of great interest to transactional lawyers. The course comprises both classroom and field work components: The classroom study includes mediation (and related "alternatives" to formal adversary litigation), intensive simulated skills training, and observations of outside neutrals in actual adjudications and mediations. Using discussion, videos and simulation exercises, students are then trained intensively prior to commencing fieldwork. The course concludes with seminars on themes ranging from restorative justice to major commercial case and on-line ADR. In the fieldwork component, students are the frontline mediators under faculty supervision. With a faculty supervisor present, students co-mediate an average of 4-5 cases per semester at courthouse and other off-site settings. Mediations are in the areas of civil litigation, criminal, child custody disputes and campus disciplinary matters. Following each mediation, the students are "debriefed" by their faculty supervisor to provide a complete learning experience. By the end of the course students will have learned a great deal about negotiation, advising, evaluating cases in litigation, presiding over a meeting -- as well as resolving conflicts as a mediator. Highlights:
Mediation Clinic |
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