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Negotiation Workshop
Negotiation skills play a key part in resolving legal cases as well as situations in everyday life. This course is designed to give students experience in negotiation as well as grounding in negotiation theory based on experiential learning. Students will participate in negotiation simulations that cover a wide range of situations, including lawsuit settlements, neighborhood disputes, personal services contracts, contracts for the sale and purchase of commercial and residential property, family disputes, corporate takeovers, international disputes, and labor disputes.
This course has no prerequisites.
Mediation Skills and Advocacy
This course focuses on mediation from two perspectives: that of the mediator and that of the advocate considering mediation for a specific dispute and the possibility of representing the client in mediation. The course is designed to provide students with both a theoretical background and hands-on experience in mediation and mediation advocacy. Part of the course will consist of mediation skills training conducted by the National Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR). Students who successfully complete the skills training and meet all of CCR's certification requirements for their model of mediation, will have the opportunity to become certified as CCR mediators and to conduct real mediations on behalf of CCR in the 4 credit hour practicum during Spring Semester through the Mediation Practicum.
Prerequisites: Negotiation or Cultural Negotiation.
Mediation Practicum
This course is a continuation of Mediation and Advocacy for those students who continue to perform mediations under the supervision of faculty. Students also meet once a week in seminar to supervise, monitor and improve mediations skills. Mediations can be done at the Center for Conflict Resolution, or at the Cook County Courthouse at the Richard J. Daley Center.
Advanced Mediation Practicum
The Advanced Mediation Practicum gives select students who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to exploring the mediation process the opportunity to further develop their mediation skills and to deepen their understanding of the process in new contexts. Each student, with the assistance of the professor as well as the Center for Conflict Resolution, will create a placement opportunity designed to complement their interests and develop their mediation skills. Past placements involved working with Illinois State Court judges and Northwestern University's undergraduate conciliation program, a judicial body that helps resolve disputes between undergraduate students charged with code of conduct infractions and University officials.
Dispute Resolution
This course provides students with a first-hand understanding of the relative advantages and disadvantages of various dispute resolution options from negotiation to trial. Each dispute resolution process will be critically analyzed for theoretical and practical differences, strengths and weaknesses, and appropriate areas of use. Students will work in teams to prepare and participate in three dispute resolution simulations: negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.
This course has no prerequisites.
