Litigation & Dispute Resolution Skills

This class will focus on: (1) the variety of dispute resolution methods that are available to lawyers and their clients; (2) the skills, craft, and techniques associated with each; and (3) a set of approaches for identifying the dispute resolution method most appropriate to a particular dispute. Because litigation is a central method of dispute resolution, because its component conduct is technically complicated, and because alternative dispute resolution processes are conducted in the shadow of litigation, the larger part of this course will focus on it: case planning, formal and informal fact investigation, and formal evidentiary hearings. Some forty percent of class time, however, will be devoted to an understanding about and the skilled conduct of alternative processes.