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Academic Program—Special Curriculum Offerings
 

Alternative Dispute Resolution Certificate Program

An Alternative Dispute Resolution Certificate will be awarded to those School of Law graduates who have satisfied the special focus requirements of the Alternate Dispute Resolution Certificate Program. To gain an Alternative Dispute Resolution Certificate, the graduate must:

 

accumulate 95 law school credit hours (five hours more than the 90 hours required to obtain a J.D.); and

successfully complete (a) Pre-Trial Advocacy, Civil Procedure I and II, Evidence, and Trial Practice, (b) the basic Alternative Dispute Resolution course, (c) six credit hours of additional qualifying ADR course work, (d) four credit hours of ADR skill activities, and (e) successfully complete the existing third-year writing requirement on a topic that substantially incorporates alternative dispute resolution.

Upon successful completion of the certificate program, the certificate is noted officially on the student's transcript.

I.  95 School of Law Credit Hours
  While 90 credit hours is required to complete the requirements for a J.D. degree, to receive an ADR Certificate the graduate must complete 95 credit hours.

II.  Successfully Complete the Following Courses and Skill Activities
A.

The Required Dispute Resolution Course Work
To receive an ADR Certificate the graduate must successfully complete: Pre-Trial Advocacy, Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Trial Practice.

B.

The Basic ADR Course
To receive an ADR Certificate the graduate must successfully complete the three-credit-hour basic ADR course.

C.

 Additional ADR Course Work
To receive an ADR Certificate the graduate must successfully complete six credit hours from the following courses:

ADVANCED FAMILY MEDIATION
In this inter-disciplinary course, Law and graduate students from Psychology, Guidance and Counseling, and Communications focus on advanced skills training, simulated family mediations and other mediations which extensively draw upon the family mediation model, and the observation of such mediations. The Basic ADR course is a prerequisite. 3 credits.

NEGOTIATION
Through discussion and simulation, students learn the techniques of negotiating in commercial, domestic relations, labor, and litigation contexts. 3 credits.

NATURAL RESOURCES DISPUTE RESOLUTION
Drawing on this history of the West and several disciplines, the seminar presents a conceptual framework for understanding the history of ideas that have shaped the policies, institutions, and strategies used to resolve natural resource and other public policy conflicts in the American West. Since the theory and practice of public dispute resolution emerged, in large part, from the need to find more effective ways to resolve environmental and natural resource disputes, this seminar focuses on natural resource and environmental dispute resolution. 3 credits.

INDEPENDENT AND ADVANCED ADR STUDIES
In recent years, students, in a small group setting or as an independent study, have taken advanced ADR studies in topics ranging from "advanced family dispute resolution," "arbitration," and "advanced mediation." Students may arrange to take ADR courses in topics of interest by arraignment with faculty. Up to 3 credits.

D.

Skill Activities
To receive an ADR Certificate the graduate must successfully complete:

MEDIATION CLINIC
4 credits. The ADR course is a prerequisite.

E.

Third-Year Legal Writing Incorporating ADR
Every Law School graduate is required to complete an Advanced Writing Requirement. To qualify for an ADR Certificate, the Advanced Writing Requirement must incorporate a substantial ADR component. for Example, e.g., mediation of environmental disputes, court rules mandating the use of ADR in conjunction with traditional litigation, ADR in Indian Country, negotiating in Indian Country, arbitration of labor disputes, party expectations at settlement conferences, etc. To assure that a Third-Year Writing Assignment satisfies this requirement, the Director of the ADR Certificate Program is to review the writing topic and the final writing of every Certificate Program student.

If you wish to pursue a certificate program, please notify the Associate Dean of the School of Law as soon as you decide to do so, but in no case later than the beginning of your second year of law school.   

 

 
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