Richard Peterson
USC Gould School of Law

Richard Peterson is the director of the USC Gould School of Law Center for Dispute Resolution and adjunct professor of law.

Previously at USC Gould, he served as a lecturer in law and also served briefly as senior director for experiential education.

Before coming to USC last fall, Peterson was on the faculty of the Pepperdine University School of Law, where he served for 15 years, including as a member of the faculty of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. While at Pepperdine, Peterson also served as director of the Special Education Advocacy Clinic and as director of externships. Peterson holds a BSL and a JD from Western State University, as well as an MDR and an LLM from Pepperdine.

Peterson has served as chair of the Disability Law Section and the Law and Mental Disability Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) as well as a member of the Board of Directors of a number of non-profit organizations including the Regional Center of Orange County, Down Syndrome Association of Orange County and as a member of the Professional Advisory Board of the Epilepsy Alliance of Orange County. His scholarly publications include articles on the topic of therapeutic jurisprudence.

Before beginning his teaching career in 2002, Peterson worked as a consultant to school districts and schools across the nation, teaching dispute resolution and anger management curriculum to K-12 teachers, administrator, and probation officers as part of gang violence prevention programs. He began practicing law in 1979 and has served as a private mediator and arbitrator for more than 35 years. Peterson has an AV rating with Martindale Hubbell. 

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

NBC Los Angeles
June 16, 2021
Re: Jody David Armour

Jody Armour was interviewed about Congress's approval of the bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. "The concern is that this may be just hollow symbolism, and we should not just settle for mere symbolism at the expense of substantive reform," he said.

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Robert K. Rasmussen
April, 2021

"COVID-19 Debt and Bankruptcy Infrastructure," Yale Law Journal Forum.

Marcela Prieto
April, 2021

Marcela Prieto participated on a panel discussion on “Constitutionalism in Latin America,” Constitutionalism and the Free Society Conference, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, CA.

Thomas D. Lyon
April, 2021

“Police interviewing behaviors and commercially sexually exploited adolescents' reluctance,” (with Agnieszka Nogalska, Hayden M. Henderson & Scarlet Cho) (in press). Psychology, Public Policy, and Law.