Kenneth Cloke, author of Mediating Evil, War and Terrorism, is Director of the Center for Dispute Resolution. This article is a chapter from his new book, The Crossroads of Conflict - A Journey into the Heart of Dispute Resolution. Mr. Cloke is a mediator, arbitrator, consultant and trainer, specializing in resolving complex multi-party conflicts. He is a nationally recognized leader in the field of conflict resolution. His consulting and training practice includes organizational change, leadership, communication, conflict resolution, negotiation, team building and strategic planning. He is a published author of Mediation: Revenge and the Magic of Forgiveness and Mediating Dangerously: The Frontiers of Conflict Resolution. He is co-author with Joan Goldsmith of Thank God It’s Monday! 14 Values We Need to Humanize The Way We Work; Resolving Conflicts at Work: A Complete Guide for Everyone on the Job; Resolving Personal and Organizational Disputes: Stories of Transformation and Forgiveness; The End of Management and The Rise of Organizational Democracy; and,The Art of Waking People Up: Cultivating Awareness and Authenticity at Work . Mr. Cloke received a B.A. from the University of California; a J.D. from U.C.’s Boalt Law School; a Ph.D. from UCLA; an LLM from UCLA Law School; and has done post- doctoral work at Yale Law School.
Robert N. Dobbins, author of the Layered Dispute Resolution Clause -- from Boilerplate to Business Opportunity, is a full-time practicing mediator, arbitrator, facilitator, ADR instructor and discovery referee. He specializes in complex international and domestic commercial, business and intellectual property disputes. Mr. Dobbins was the member of the inaugural Master of Laws (LL.M) class at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine Law School. He has been featured as a speaker and trained lawyer groups ranging from the International Trademark Association to the Centre for International Legal Studies (CILS) on how to make better use of dispute resolution processes in the international marketplace. Robert has served as a Visiting Scholar at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law - UNCITRAL - in Vienna, Austria where he assisted in the completion of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Conciliation, a comprehensive analysis of the dispute resolution methods used around the globe. A member of the adjunct faculty at Straus, Robert teaches Cross-Cultural Negotiation, International Commercial Dispute Resolution, and the ADR Survey courses.
Robert M. Nelson, author of DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN POST- COMMUNIST SOCIETIES: FEASIBLE OR A DREAM? is a Canadian lawyer, arbitrator and mediator, and a partner at Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP. As Director of the Gowlings Team, he worked to introduce modern commercial dispute resolution methods into Russia (1999-2000) and Albania (2002-2004) for their respective governments and the World Bank. The author remains convinced that ADR will succeed in Russia and Albania. He particularly wishes to complement the energetic Board of the Arbitration and Mediation Centre of Albania and its gifted Executive Director, Fatbardh Ademi.
Victoria Pynchon, author of Shame by Any Other Name -- Lessons for Restorative Justice from the Principles, Practices and Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous, earned her LL.M degree in Dispute Resolution from the Straus Institute at Pepperdine Law School in the Spring of 2006. Before becoming a full-time neutral, Ms. Pynchon practiced complex commercial litigation with emphases in antitrust, securities fraud, intellectual property, environmental insurance coverage, legal malpractice involving commercial transactions, and business disputes in general. She is a member of the Judicate West panel of neutrals, the Southern California Mediation Association, for which she serves on the Board of Directors, the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and its Commercial Discovery Committee, and the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Bar Associations. She is a graduate of U.C. Davis, Order of the Coif and U.C. San Diego (Literature) Magna Cum Laude. In addition to editing the Settle It Now Dispute Resolution Journal, she also edits the quarterly on-line literary journal, R-KV-R-Y, a Quarterly now in its third year of publication.
Robert A. Steinberg authored The Blackberry Settlement - Lessons in Settlement Advocacy. Mr. Steinberg mediates complex business cases. Before he became a full-time mediator, Mr. Steinberg was a corporate, securities and tax attorney for twenty-five years planning, negotiating and documenting complex business transactions. He has handled billions of dollars in transactions, obtained millions of dollars in tax refunds, and has successfully mediated hundreds of cases. Mr. Steinberg is also the publisher of Mediation Perspectives, a monthly series of online essays devoted to enhancing mediation advocacy skills. He is a popular speaker on such topics as "How to Negotiate Through a Mediator" and "Negotiation Tactics." Mr. Steinberg is a graduate of the Duke Law School, where he served on the Editorial Board of the Duke Law Journal and won the Dean's Cup Moot Court Competition. He received his undergraduate degree in English from the Honors Program of the University of Michigan. Mr. Steinberg also holds a Master of Laws degree in Taxation from New York University.
Troy Anthony Thomas, author of What Would Jesus Do -- An Analysis of Communications between Jesus of Nazareth and the Pharisees of First-Century Israel, earned his J.D. and Masters of Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law and the Straus Institute, respectively. In October 2006, he will commence his Master of Laws studies at the University of Essex in Colchester, England where he will be studying International Human Rights Law. Mr. Thomas is a lawyer admitted to the California State Bar and the Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. He is interested in the legal areas of American constitutional law, dispute resolution (specifically mediation and international arbitration), American and international employment law, international law and litigation, and international human rights and humanitarian law. Although only twenty-three years old, Mr. Thomas has served as a law clerk in the general counsel’s office of Word Confirmation Trucking, Inc.; for K. Lee Boyd, Esq., counsel of record, on a holocaust reparations case appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court; and for the Honorable Daniel C. Preciado, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Los Angeles District Office. Mr. Thomas has also served as a mediator in small claims and temporary restraining orders with the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, and employment discrimination cases with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Los Angeles District Office.
