CHICAGO, Ill. -- The following information was released by the American Bar Association:
The American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution will hold its 12th Annual Spring Conference April 7-10 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, located at 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco.
Panels will focus on a variety of topics including government transparency, class action suits, international negotiations, issues in health care, online dispute resolution, same-sex dissolution, construction industry mediation in the time of the recession and others, with more than 100 programs in all.
Keynote speakers include Lawrence E. Susskind, Ford professor of urban development and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who will speak about strategies in settling disagreements involving values - such as those related to abortion or gun control. Also speaking will be Thomas J. Stipanowich, William H. Webster chair in dispute resolution and professor of law at Pepperdine University School of Law, and Dr. Frederic Luskin of Stanford University.
The conference will also feature panelists from organizations such as the World Bank; the American Arbitration Association; Mediators Without Borders; eBay/PayPal; The University of Pennsylvania Law School; the National Institutes of Health; the National Archives; Massachusetts General Hospital; Vietnam Ministry of Justice; California's Center for Families, Children and the Courts; the U.S. Federal Credit Union; and the U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit.
An 'Annual Symposium on Court ADR' will be held April 7 from 10:30 a.m. - 5:45 p.m. The symposium will focus on innovations and technology, as well as ways to improve alternative dispute resolution. There will also be a panel that focuses specifically on the impact of the California Dispute Resolution Council on conflict resolution in California on April 8. Additionally a Legal Educator's Colloquium will take place April 10, which will bring together a variety of law professors to debate and discuss teaching tactics and the future of ADR practice. The event is co-sponsored by the Association of American Law Schools Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Northern California Legal Educators.
For more information on the 12th Annual Spring Conference, please click here.
The Section of Dispute Resolution, established in 1993, is one of the ABA's newest and fastest growing Sections with over 19,000 members already. The Section's objectives include maintaining the ABA's national leadership role in the dispute resolution field; providing information and technical assistance to members, legislators, government departments and the general public on all aspects of dispute resolution; studying existing methods for the prompt and effective resolution of disputes; adapting current legal procedures to accommodate court-annexed and court-directed dispute resolution processes; activating state and local bar involvement in dispute resolution, conducting public and professional education programs such as the Multi-Door Dispute Resolution Courthouse Centers Project and conducting a program of research and development including programmatic and legislative models.
With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.
