-by Lisa Klerman
USC Gould’s Mediation Clinic recently honored and recognized nearly a dozen mediation professionals and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) court personnel who donate their time and talent to the clinic. The special dinner, held at the USC University Club, celebrated the clinic’s fifth anniversary and its role in helping the law school receive the prestigious Ninth Circuit Judicial Council’s ADR Education Award.
“These volunteer professionals are very generous with their time,” said Lisa Klerman, director of the Mediation Clinic. “They act as private coaches to our students and give them a real window into the world of mediation. My students have frequently described their contact with the volunteer lawyers and mediators as one of the highlights of their clinic experience.”
Relying on her network of practicing lawyers and mediators, Klerman carefully selects those who are best able to assist in class and in court. Many of the professional mediators invite USC Gould students to “shadow” them while they mediate their own cases.
“The coaching we received from professional mediators was one of the most valuable aspects of the Mediation Clinic,” said Dmitrii Gabrielov ’13. “Their feedback helped me identify the strengths and improve on the weaknesses in my mediation style, which greatly accelerated my learning curve.”
For their part, the Mediation Clinic’s volunteer mediators uniformly report a positive experience working with the students. Several noted that, until recently, formal mediation training was never taught in law school.
“It’s good to see that law schools are finally teaching these techniques,” said Joe Markowitz, a lawyer and mediator who volunteers as a mediation coach in the clinic. “I can’t remember spending even a minute of formal training in negotiation when I went to law school, yet I soon found that it was a major part of practicing law.”
Today lawyers must know how to negotiate and to resolve conflicts other than by trial, added Phyllis G. Pollack, another Mediation Clinic coach. “The clinic provides this crucial training to the lawyers of tomorrow,” she said. “I have found the students to be very bright, energetic learners and eager to embrace this new style of lawyering.”
USC Gould Dean Robert K. Rasmussen said he is proud of the Mediation Clinic’s work to create innovative programs in alternative dispute resolution. “Law students who receive training in the Mediation Clinic will certainly have an advantage when they graduate. This is a gratifying acknowledgment of the quality of the education that our students receive, especially in this increasingly important area.”
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