Clients come to lawyers for help in making deals and resolving disputes. Often, lawyers trained only to litigate miss opportunities to compromise or to agree when this would best serve their clients. To become effective problem solvers, contemporary lawyers need training as negotiators, mediators, and arbitrators. These methods, together called "alternative dispute resolution" (ADR), have become more important and more sophisticated in recent years. Lawyers can help clients identify their goals and can assist in the search for imaginative solutions that "make the pie bigger," allowing clients to achieve their primary objectives efficiently. Columbia Law School offers students top quality preparation for work as problem-solving, value-enhancing lawyers.
Columbia Law School has one of the most comprehensive ADR programs in the nation. The School has paved the way with a rich curriculum taught by faculty members and practitioners, including a hands-on mediation clinic that bridges theory and practice; a negotiation workshop; the renowned Deals course; and conferences, seminars, and workshops that bring the nation's leading dispute resolution experts to campus. With more than a dozen full-time and practitioner adjunct professors teaching ADR at the Law School each semester, and more than half of each class of students taking at least one ADR offering each year, Columbia Law School is leading the pack in educating the next generation of problem-solving lawyers.
