Dispute Resolution at Florida Law

University of Florida Levin College of Law continues to expand our focus on dispute resolution. This fall, we welcomed Professor Donna Erez-Navot as the new Director of our Mediation Clinic. You may learn more about Professor Erez-Navot and our other faculty below.

Jonathan R. Cohen, Professor of Law, has lectured at dozens of professional conferences and published more than twenty articles in the dispute resolution field. His writings, especially concerning the role of apologies in legal disputes, have prompted significant changes to legal practice both domestically and internationally. He received his A.B., J.D., and Ph.D. (economics) from Harvard University, where he also served as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard’s Program on Negotiation.

Robin Davis, Emeritus Senior Legal Skills Professor, has been a Florida Supreme Court certified mediator since 1993 and is a Diplomate of the Florida Academy of Professional Mediators. She served as the Alternative Dispute Resolution Director for the Florida Eighth Judicial Circuit for fourteen years and has served as an appointee on various Florida Supreme Court Mediation Committees since 1997. Professor Davis has mediated over 2,000 civil and family cases.

Donna Erez-Navot, a graduate of Cardozo School of Law, joined Florida Law this fall as a Legal Skills Professor to lead our Mediation Clinic. An experienced mediator, Professor Erez-Navot previously directed mediation clinics at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she served as Assistant Director of the Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution, and at University of Wisconsin Law School, where she established numerous mediation and child protection programs.

Joan Stearns Johnsen, Director of the Institute for Dispute Resolution and Senior Legal Skills Professor, is Past Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, a Council Member of the International Institute for Conflict Resolution and Prevention (CPR), Vice Chair of the International Bar Association Mediation Committee, an Academic Board Member of the Miami International Arbitration Society, a Fellow of the Chartered Trust of Arbitrators, and is certified by the International Mediation Institute. Professor Johnsen has extensive professional experience as a commercial arbitrator and mediator and serves on panels for the American Arbitration Association, CPR, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and the American Health Law Association.

UF Law offers a full slate of semester-long dispute resolution courses, including Mediation, Mediation Advocacy, Arbitration, International Arbitration, Negotiation, and Collaborative Law. In addition, we offer the following:

Diversity, Inequality, and Dispute Resolution. This course examines disputes in which different types of diversity, including gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, class, and age, are central to the conflict. It explores conflict resolution in the context of diversity and social inequality and the use of different dispute resolution mechanisms (e.g., adjudication, mediation, and negotiation) for such disputes.

Intensive Arbitration Workshop. UF Law regularly offers advanced arbitration workshops for students. These intensive compressed courses include workshops by lawyers and arbitrators exposing students to different forms of arbitration. Past courses have focused on topics as diverse as International Arbitration and FINRA Securities Arbitration.

Introduction to Lawyering. UF Law previews dispute resolution skills to all 1L students during our innovative Introduction to Lawyering course (ITL). This required first-semester course introduces students to fundamental lawyering skills, including by conducting an intensive negotiation exercise. ITL also emphasizes core skills related to professional identity, reputational skills, and ethics.

Mediation Clinic. Students mediate small claims and federal employment discrimination cases after participating in a 24-hour Basic County Mediation Training. Clinic director Professor Donna Erez-Navot co-trained students with Professor Sharon Press (Mitchell Hamline School of Law) this past fall. Under the supervision of Professor Erez-Navot, students attend Alachua County Small Claims Court weekly and mediate disputes between landlords and tenants, business partners, vendors and consumers, family members, neighbors, and employees and employers. Students also co-mediate Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) cases between complainants and federal agencies. In addition to this hands-on mediation practice in state and federal mediation programs, students are assigned the foundational articles of negotiation and mediation theory and meet over the course of the semester to discuss the challenges and opportunities of their clinical practice. Most students are eligible to apply for Florida Supreme Court County Mediation Certification by the end of the semester.

UF Law's Institute for Dispute Resolution (IDR) seeks to encourage and enhance teaching, research, and service in the field of dispute resolution. IDR sponsors many events, including its premier annual conference with renowned speakers from around the world. IDR also hosts legal scholars who address issues related to ADR and supports a distance learning library of content from recognized leaders in various areas of dispute resolution. In October 2022, Professor Joan Stearns Johnsen, director of the IDR, led an Open Classroom Event for students featuring four special classes taught by nationally recognized scholars and practitioners.

Alyson Carrel, Clinical Assistant Professor, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Noam Ebner, Professor, Creighton University School of Law
Jill Gross, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Pace University Elisabeth Haub School of Law
David Hoffman, John H. Watson, Jr. Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School
Homer La Rue, Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law
John Lande, Isidor Loeb Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri School of Law
Christine Lazaro, Director, Securities Arbitration Clinic, St. John’s University School of Law
Carrie Menkel Meadow, Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Irvine School of Law
Sharon Press, Professor of Law and Director of Dispute Resolution Institute, Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Imre Szalai, Judge John D. Wessel Distinguished Professor of Social Justice, Loyola University New Orleans

Professor Donna Erez-Navot and Professor Sharon Press (Director of Dispute Resolution Institute at Mitchell Hamline School of Law) (shown here) co-trained the UF Law Mediation Clinic in the Fall 2022 semester. Their training was approved by the Florida Supreme Court's Dispute Resolution Center (DRC) and was the first step for students to become Florida Supreme Court Certified County Mediators. Emeritus Professor Robin Davis (not pictured) joined the training team on the last day and gave valuable feedback to student in their mock mediations.

Professor Donna Erez-Navot presented her talk entitled “The Good Enough Mediator: Translating Psychological Theories for Use in the Mediation Room” at the American Association of Law School’s (AALS) ADR Works In Progress Conference at the University of Oregon School of Law.

Professor Joan Stearns Johnsen presented at the International Bar Association's Annual Conference in Miami, chairing the “Dispute Prevention – The Emerging Mechanisms” session on November 2, 2022.

Earlier in the year, Professor Joan Stearns Johnsen presented a prevention training with Professor Andrea Schneider (Cardozo Law School), a negotiation training for the Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and a negotiation training for the NCSBN Leadership and Public Policy Conference.

Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. Students compete in international competitions held in Vienna, Hong Kong, and other cities. In addition to numerous individual awards for its students, the UF Law Vis Moot team has won the Willem C. Vis Pre-Moot at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France and the Shanghai Pre-Moot in Shanghai, China. The UF Law team was a Quarterfinalist at the Hong Kong Vis Moot in 2019.

Florida ADR Team. The Florida ADR Team competes in dispute resolution related competitions other than the Vis Moot. The ADR Team fields several teams each year for competitions selected by the students. In recent years, the ADR Team has competed in various ABA-organized arbitration, negotiation, mediation, and mediation advocacy competitions. In fall of 2020, UF Law was host to the first-ever ABA virtual arbitration competition.

Gators for Alternative Dispute Resolution. This student-run organization provides students with opportunities to learn about ADR practice by connecting them with practitioners and an international network of students.