FALL 2025 ADR SPEAKER SERIES

Impartiality or Injustice? Re-examining Neutrality in Mediation Through a Racial Justice Lens

Sharon Press, Director, Dispute Resolution Institute, Robins Kaplan Distinguished Professor, Mitchell Hamline School of Law

Isabelle Gunning, Mayor Tom Bradley Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School

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Sharon Press is Director of the Dispute Resolution Institute and the Robins Kaplan Distinguished Professor of Litigation Skills and International Dispute Resolution at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, MN. Press serves on the board of the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation. Press is a Florida Supreme Court certified county and family mediator and on Minnesota’s Rule 114 Roster of Civil Facilitative and Hybrid Neutrals. She mediates regularly in Conciliation, Housing, and Harassment Courts and for the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. Prior to joining Mitchell Hamline Law, Press served as director of the Florida Dispute Resolution Center where she was responsible for the ADR programs for the Florida state court system during its formative years. Press was the Association for Conflict Resolution’s representative to the Drafting Committee for the Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators adopted by the AAA, ABA and ACR. She received her B.A. from The George Washington University School of Public and International Affairs and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center.

Isabelle Gunning (she/hers) was motivated to study law in order to support progressive changes in our larger society. Before becoming a professor, she was a criminal defense attorney with the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C. and a human rights attorney with the Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She is currently the Mayor Tom Bradley Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School. She teaches and writes in the area of Conflict Resolution/ Alternative Dispute Resolution. She also teaches Evidence. She also writes in the area of religious/spiritual lawyering. Her main research interests are around justice and fairness in mediation as well as multicultural dialogue and the search for and creation of shared values in the context of racial inequality and other socially defined power hierarchy dynamics. She serves as a commissioner on the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations and is a board member on the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. She practices as a mediator and an arbitrator. She works as a mediator/facilitator in support of resolving community conflicts. In addition, she has over 15 years of experience serving as a labor arbitrator and hearing examiner in workplace disputes.