Student Opportunities

"As a student in the mediation practicum, I actually work in the courts. I get the opportunity to interact directly with people who have filed suit in court. It's an incredible experience to take the ideas I learned in the first negotiations class and facilitate a negotiation between two parties who in some cases have had a really tough past. For me, every mediation is about working to find where interests intersect and trying to get people to understand that they can help meet one another's needs. My first mediation in the courts was a landlord-tenant issue. They had family history, but walked in to that mediation certain that they wouldn't be able to settle with each other. Thirty minutes later we had an agreement. I hope that somewhere they're having a cup of coffee together, talking about their grandchildren. I don't think that would have been possible if they had just gone to court."
-- Katherine Hayes

"The opportunity for collaboration between centers in the Bluhm Clinic and with other parts of the law school is a highlight of the Center on Negotiation, Mediation, and Restorative Justice," says co-director Lynn Cohn. "For instance, we had the privilege of working with a client from the Center on Wrongful Convictions, who had been released from prison and was reintegrating with his family after 16 years of incarceration. We facilitated a 'peace circle' mediation, whereby our students worked with him and his family, giving them the chance to navigate and resolve issues and conflicts. It was an exceptionally rewarding collaboration and opportunity for our students."

 

Hearing From Our Students

 


Curriculum Impact by the Numbers

Center on Negotiation, Mediation, and Restorative Justice Offers Breadth and Depth

Top
10
U.S. News & World Report
Top Ten Dispute Resolution program
487 enrollment in courses taught by the center
At Least
80
of those enrollments were students choosing
to enroll in at least 2 different courses
14 different course offerings
1 course—Negotiation, ran 12 different sections


Negotiation Competition

This intra-school competition, offered each fall, is open to any Northwestern Law student who is either currently enrolled in a Negotiation class or who has taken a Negotiation class at Northwestern Law in the past. The two top teams from the Northwestern Law Negotiation Competition compete in the ABA Negotiation Regional Competition. The top two teams from the ABA Negotiation Regional Competition compete in the ABA Negotiation National Competition. More...

Teaching Assistants

The Center on Negotiation, Mediation, and Restorative Justice provides students with the opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant for the Negotiation Workshop. TAs are selected by the professor based on their mastery of negotiation and their ability to interact with their peers. TAs  provide an additional layer of feedback, allowing students to receive feedback from the professor, other students, or the teaching assistant. In addition, teaching assistants are able to share their experiences from taking the Negotiation Workshop and to relate these experiences to the current class activity. Each section of Negotiation has two TAs.