In the U.S., more than 3,000 lawyers, law teachers, judges and other professionals have been trained in this method. Since 1990, the Center has offered trainings in Europe and Israel. Center trainers have also used the model in trainings at Harvard's Program of Instruction for Lawyers, the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative, the American Bar Association and the World Intellectual Property Organization. For those who have completed the Mediation Intensive course and are interested in the practice of conflict resolution, the Center offers ongoing supervision groups, peer groups and advanced training programs.

"The central quality of mediation...[is] its capacity to reorient the parties toward each other, not by imposing rules on them, but by helping them to achieve a new and shared perception of their relationship"
- Lon Fuller, 1902 - 1978
  Author and Professor, Harvard Law School

The Understanding-Based Approach to Mediation

Understanding-based mediation developed out of a desire to support persons in conflict with one another to work through their conflict together. Many forms of conflict resolution place the responsibility and authority for resolving the conflict in the hands of the professional. In the judicial system, the ultimate power is with the judge who resolves a dispute by deciding who is right and who is wrong under the law. In the pre-trial negotiation of legal conflicts, the manner that most legal disputes are resolved, it is the lawyers who usually have primary responsibility for shaping the outcome, subject to their clients' approval.

Mediation is thought to be different. however.  Many approaches to mediation often place great power, explicitly or implicitly, in the hands of the mediator who shuttles back and forth between the disputing parties in the effort to assess the situation and broker a deal.

We view the challenge facing people in conflict is how they can assume the responsibility for resolving their conflict together. Taking on that challenge is important for individuals and organizations in conflict in part because the results reached by their working through the conflict are much more fulfilling and the path taken much more rewarding. But we are also motivated by the larger challenge facing humanity to learn ways to work together to resolve the deep conflicts we face in today's increasingly interconnected world. The aspiration to search those ways has motivated us to explore a different approach embodied in what we have come to term the Understanding-based approach to mediation.

In this approach to resolving conflict, the mediator seeks to work directly and simultaneously together with the parties throughout the mediation in the effort to support their finding their resolution to their conflict . Stated most simply, we seek to support the parties in making knowing and informed choices together. We wish to do that in a way that is respectful of the parties and also fosters respect by them for themselves and for each other.

In developing this approach, we do not feel so much that we are inventing something new, but rather uncovering what is innately there in the ways that many people in conflict have often dealt with one another and, more often, have wished to be able to do so. This is an essential point, because many today would say that parties to conflict lack the desire and the ability to go through conflict together, but for us it is that perception that frequently poses the greatest obstacle.

We believe the impulse to work through conflict together is there and a natural part of the human condition. It may be nascent, buried or blocked; and it certainly receives little support in our society. But it is very much there, waiting to be tapped and given room for expression. And the same is true for the capacity of those in conflict to work through their conflict together. It may be undeveloped, but it is often readily available to those who are motivated and given the support and structure that will allow it expression. This approach to mediation seeks to tap that impulse and give expression to that capacity.

Role of Law and Lawyers

 Mediators tend to be divided in how they approach the role of law in mediation. Some rely heavily on what a court would decide if the case went to trial, authoritatively suggesting that law should be the controlling standard used to end the conflict. Other mediators concerned that the parties might simply defer too readily to the law and miss the opportunity to find more creative decisions, keep the law out of the mediation.

In this model, we welcome lawyers' participation and include the law, but do not rely solely on the law. The importance the parties give to the law is up to them. Our goal is 1) to educate the parties about the law and possible legal outcomes and 2) to support their freedom to fashion their own creative solutions that may differ from what a court might decide. In this way, the parties learn that they can together reach agreements that respond to both their individual interests and their common goals while also being well informed about their legal rights and the judicial alternatives to a mediated settlement.

This approach to the law's place in mediation draws upon lawyers' knowledge and skills in ways both similar to and different from their traditional roles. To participate in this problem-solving approach to mediation requires many lawyers to shift from reliance on a stance of adversary advocacy to one of collaborative support. For some lawyers, this problem-solving approach can be a challenge, but a rewarding one. They are there to protect their clients and to inform them about the legal alternative while also supporting their active participation and open dialogue. The lawyers also participate in helping their clients design the mediation process and in coming up with creative solutions to their conflict that may be quite different from what a court might do. We believe that in these ways, the lawyers (and the mediation) may better serve their clients.

In these and other respects, we seek to develop and utilize mediation's potential to resolve conflict in ways that honor the parties, their differences and their relationship.

Principal Trainers:

Gary Friedman is co-founder and co-director of the Center and practitioner with Mediation Law Offices in Mill Valley, California. He is author of A Guide To Divorce Mediation (Workman Publishing) and conducts training programs in mediation and mediative approaches to the practice of law in the United States, Europe and Israel.

Jack Himmelstein, co-founder and co-director of the Center, conducts training programs in mediation and mediative approaches to the practice of law in the United States, Europe and Israel. Previously a professor at Columbia Law School and the City University of New York School of Law, he currently teaches and practices mediation in New York City.

They are currently completing a book on the application of the Center's model as applied to business disputes.  Challenging Conflict: The Understanding Based Approach to Conflict Resolution will  be published by the American Bar Association in cooperation with the Harvard Program on Negotiation.

In California, the Faculty includes:

Catherine Conner is an attorney practicing mediation and collaborative law in Santa Rosa, California. She has been practicing family law since 1982, focusing exclusively on resolutions outside of court for the last five years. She was the founding president of Collaborative Council of the Redwood Empire, a co-author of Collaborative Practice Materials, and regularly lectures on collaborative practice and family law topics.

Norman Fischer is a poet, author, Zen Buddhist priest and former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center.  As founder of the Everyday Zen Foundation (www.everydayzen.org ), his work with meditation practice has taken him into many corners of contemporary American life: including the arts, education, hospice training, education, and lawyering as a spiritual path.  Recently, he began offering meditation training to engineers at Google.  Norman has worked with the Center for Mediation in Law on inquiries that focus on bringing the calmness and insight of meditation practice directly into conflict situations. His latest book is the forthcoming "Sailing Home: Using the Wisdom of the Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils and Pitfalls" (from Simon and Schuster, June 2008).

Kathy Stoner maintains both a mediation and litigation practice in Pacific Grove, California, specializing in family, small business and partnership matters. In addition to the Center's training programs, she has taught at the Monterey College of Law.

In New York, the Faculty includes:

Barry Berkman is an attorney/mediator in private practice and partner with Berkman, Bottger & Rodd, LLP in New York City. Mediating since 1982, he also practices collaborative law, is a founding member of the New York Collaborative Law Group, is currently on its Board, and has taught family law as an adjunct professor at the Cardozo School of Law.

Jill Cohen is an attorney practicing mediation in New York City. She is a Board member of the Family and Divorce Mediation Council of Greater New York and has taught Divorce Mediation at Cardozo School of Law.

Marc Fleisher is an attorney practicing mediation and founding member of the New York Collaborative Law Group. While specializing in divorce mediation, he has mediated in a variety of areas, including healthcare and employment. He teaches divorce mediation at Brooklyn Law School and the Ackerman Institute of the Family.

Joan A. Lieberman is an attorney who has practiced as a commercial and employment litigator, in-house lawyer and mediator. She is currently Director of Legal Services (Tri-State) for Resources Global Professionals, a multinational professional services firm dedicated to bringing experienced legal and other professionals, seeking balance and control in their work life, together with clients who need legal and business expertise on a project or interim basis.

Katherine Eisold Miller is an attorney practicing mediation and collaborative law in Westchester County, NY. She has been practicing family law since 1987, first as a litigator and now exclusively outside the court system. She has taught family law at the White Institute in NYC, lectures regularly on mediation and collaborative practice, and is a Board member of the New York Collaborative Law Group.

Elizabeth Reingold is an attorney practicing mediation and collaborative law in New York City. She has been helping families find workable out-of-court solutions to the problems of separation and divorce since 1996. Elizabeth is a founding member and current President of the New York Collaborative Law Group, and lectures regularly about mediation and collaborative law.

"The information I received at this training was incredible. I have taken other mediation trainings, and I have found this method to be the standard by which others are measured. I have been able to use the techniques throughout my practice."

"Both teachers have discovered a successful combination of communicating theoretical knowledge about business mediation, on the one hand, and directly implementing this knowledge in role play, on the other hand, which has turned this training course into a valuable enrichment for me, both in technical and personal terms."

"A much more interesting and satisfying approach to mediation."

"Extremely well done, much more in depth than I imagined it would be. Brought me a whole new understanding of mediation. Taught important skills in a great atmosphere."

"Pedagogically impressive!"

"A good mix of practice, theory and open discussion."

"Jack and Gary are great teachers and facilitators. They were funny, knowledgeable, and obvious experts in the field."

"The BEST 39 MCLE credits I've ever earned! I was never bored...I was totally immersed in the program, both in and out of the sessions."