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

Kenosha News
January 24, 2022
Re: Franita Tolson

Franita Tolson was interviewed about Republicans' success in blocking voter rights legislation. "A lot of states have voter I.D. laws, but it's important to distinguish between types of voter I.D. laws to the extent that a state has a restrictive one," she said. "But what we saw in the wake of the Shelby County decision was states enacted more restrictive voter IDs, voter I.D. laws because they don't have to preclear with the federal government."

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

D. Daniel Sokol
November, 2021

D. Daniel Sokol posted an Op-ed to the National Post titled “Competition law reforms not needed to meet the challenges of Big Tech,” November 17, 2021.

Robin Craig
November, 2021

"Environmental Law, Disrupted by COVID-19" (with Rebecca Bratspies, Vanessa Casado Perez, Lissa Griffin, Keith Hirokawa, Sarah Krakoff, Katrina Kuh, Jessica Owley, Melissa Powers, Shannon Roesler, Jonathan Rosenbloom, J.B. Ruhl, Erin Ryan, & David Takacs). In Environmental Law, Disrupted, edited by K. Hirokawa & J. Owley. Washington, D.C.: Environmental Law Institute, 2021.

Robert K. Rasmussen
November, 2021

“COVID-19 Debt and Bankruptcy Infrastructure,” Yale Law Journal Forum 131 (2021): 337.