Alternative Dispute Resolution Scholarship and Impact

UC Law SF provides students and practitioners with world class alternative dispute resolution (ADR) education, training, and events through our Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (CNDR).

Recent News | Selected Scholarship | Faculty

Recent News

A group photo with the letters @ NLSIU in the background

UC Law SF Expands its Global ADR Reach

UC Law SF is advancing its international leadership in ADR through a multi-year collaboration with the National Law School of India University (NLSIU). The Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (CNDR) faculty, together with leading Indian mediation experts, piloted a 40-hour negotiation and mediation-advocacy course in 2024 with 25 NLSIU students. As India moves to require mediation instruction across all law schools, this initiative provides a model for culturally grounded, practice-ready ADR training. The partnership underscores the College’s role in shaping dispute resolution education in rapidly evolving legal systems.

Former DOJ Staffer Joins CNDR as New Associate Director

The Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution welcomed Corey Linehan as its new associate director. A native San Franciscan and graduate of Harvard Law School, Corey joined CNDR after years of public service in Washington, D.C., including as deputy chief of staff and senior counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legislative Affairs and senior health and education counsel to U.S. Senator Chris Coons. At Harvard, he was a member of the teaching teams for several executive education courses and advanced negotiation workshops offered through its Program on Negotiation.

3L Wins Francis E. McGovern Scholarship

This year, 3L student Ron Kinan has been awarded the 2025 Francis E. McGovern Scholarship—the premier honor from CNDR at UC Law SF, given to those who demonstrate outstanding commitment to ADR study and practice. Through CNDR coursework and competitive ADR contests, Kinan has deepened his mediation skills and upheld the College’s strong tradition of advocacy excellence. The award underscores UC Law SF’s ongoing commitment to cultivating tomorrow’s leaders in dispute resolution.

Celebrating 20 Years of Innovation in ADR Education

In 2023 UC Law SF’s Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (CNDR) celebrated 20 years of commitment and service to the international legal community, making it one of the oldest and highest-ranking alternative dispute resolution (ADR) think tanks in the U.S.

The influence and impact of CNDR’s applied research and innovative teaching methodology extends well beyond the U.S. CNDR faculty have provided training and legal reform advice to lawyers and legal educators working in Ghana, Haiti, India, and Kosovo, and to government entities and NGOs such as the National Judicial College, the judiciary of Kazakhstan, the judiciary of Rwanda, the Ministry of Justice of Colombia, and the World Bank.

In addition to its innovative pedagogy and global reach, CNDR’s professional training program and vibrant events series add breadth and depth to its ADR offerings.

Mediation Education for Global Legal Professionals

In fall 2023, CNDR hosted a distinguished group of international visitors, including Supreme Court justices, judges, lawyers, and mediators from every continent except Antarctica.

CNDR provided the group with training and insight from a cross section of international experts from the court system, private ADR institutions, and the World Bank, providing expertise on how to cultivate robust dispute resolution ecosystems in participants’ home countries through the establishment of mediation centers.

ADR Student Scholarship Honors Francis E. McGovern

CNDR is offering a new annual scholarship to students who display exceptional commitment to ADR. The Francis E. McGovern Scholarship for ADR has been bequeathed by Katy McGovern to honor the life and legacy of her late husband, Professor Francis E. McGovern, whose career exemplified the highest level of commitment to the principles and practice of ADR.

Professor McGovern’s professional life was shaped by his belief in the role of communication in building and nurturing clients’ trust to mediate conflicts. UC Law SF Chancellor & Dean David Faigman described McGovern as a “master who excelled at mediating high-profile controversial cases” while being generous and good natured to all who met him.

Selected Scholarship

Read the Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution Annual Report.

Hiro N. Aragaki, The Federal Arbitration Act in Comparative Perspective: Is the United States An Outlier?, in The Federal Arbitration Act: Successes, Failures, and a Roadmap for Reform, edited by Richard A. Bales & Jill I. Gross, Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Hiro N. Aragaki, Making it Real, in Discussions in Dispute Resolution: The Next Generation, edited by Art Hinshaw, Andrea Schneider & Sarah Cole, Oxford University Press, 2025

Thalia González & Alyssa Scott, Betwixt and Between: Education Carcerality, Anti-Inclusion and Restorative Justice in Public Schools, 52 Fordham Urban Law Journal 1165 (2025)

Zac Henderson, AI and Probabilistic Dispute Resolution, 2025 Wisconsin Law Review 215.

Clark Freshman, How Should We Grade Vulnerability in Students, Colleagues, and Administrators? AALS ADR Works-in-Progress Conference, San Francisco, 2025.

Catherine Rogers et al., Complying in the Shadow of the Award, 50 Yale Journal of International Law 174 (2025)

Gail Silverstein, Panelist, Every Dollar Matters: Creative Solutions for Removing Financial Barriers in Experiential Education, 2025 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Baltimore.

Dwight Golann, Creating Bots and Avatars: How They Can Help Us Teach, and What We Learn As We Build Them, AALS ADR Works-in-Progress Conference, San Francisco, 2025

Hiro N. Aragaki, Handling Difficult Lawyers in a Mediation, CAMP Arbitration & Mediation Practice, Bangalore, India, 2025.

Hiro N. Aragaki, A Survey of Commercial Mediation in the United States, AALS ADR Works-in-Progress Conference, San Francisco, 2025.

Mattie Robertson, Mediation Aspects of SB940 in California: Initial Mediator Certification Recommendations, American Arbitration Association (AAA) Mediation Magazine, October 2025.

Mattie Robertson, Moderator, New Regulation of the ADR Process in California: An Interview with Senator Tom Umberg on the Aims and Workings of SB 940, California Lawyers Association.

Professor Aragaki has been actively supporting the worldwide advancement of ADR. He serves as vice chair of the ABA Section of International Law’s International Arbitration Committee, mediation advisor to the World Bank’s Business Ready report, co-chair of the Academic Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) USA, board member for the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ROLI) and chair of ABA ROLI’s Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative Council, among others. He submitted (with Srividhya Ragavan, Texas A&M) an invited response to the Expert Committee of the Indian Ministry of Law & Justice on proposed arbitration reforms.

Clark Freshman hosted an ADR speaker series at UC Law SF and presented his empirical research Emotional Efficiency: An Empirical Study of How Small Boosts Improve Negotiation Outcomes For Ordinary People. Professor Freshman also gave “integrating meditation into dispute-resolution” classes to ABA’s virtual Dispute Resolution Legal Education session, and presented Eliminating Bias Through Mindfulness, Lovingkindness, and … Tech! at ABA’s 26th Annual Section of Dispute Resolution Spring Conference.

What will right-wing legislation do to efforts to bring restorative justice to schools? Thalia González explored this question with Mara Schiff in The Uncertain Future of Restorative Justice: Anti-Woke Legislation, Retrenchment, and the Politics of the Right (2024) in the William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice. Professor González also gave a keynote address at a conference of the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs.

Mattie Robertson was named co-chair of the AALS Clinical ADR Committee.

Alternative Dispute Resolution Scholarship and Impact