Saturday, March 5, 2022, 9am - Noon Central

Hybrid event:  Attend in-person at Texas A&M University School of Law, Fort Worth, Texas OR ​online via Zoom

Our schmooze is a casual morning event (9am-Noon), providing an opportunity to present works-in-progress and receive feedback and advice from knowledgeable colleagues. Works-in-progress tend to be draft papers or articles, but previous schmoozes have also included consideration of other sorts of projects-in-progress – e.g., evaluation instruments, training programs, etc.

Schedule

9:00 to 9:05: Greetings!!

9:05 to 9:25

Lisa Blomgren Amsler

Distinguished Professor Lisa Blomgren Amsler (formerly Bingham), O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs Indiana University Bloomington, received her B.A. from Smith College (1976 magna cum laude, double majors in Ancient Greek and Philosophy) and her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law (1979 with high honors). A Saltman Senior Scholar at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Amsler researches dispute system design, collaborative governance, public engagement, public law, and labor and employment law. With more than 140 published works in law and social science, Amsler has crossed disciplines. A fellow of both the National Academy of Public Administration and Labor and Employment Relations Association, she received the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work (2014). Her newest book is Dispute System Design: Preventing, Managing, and Resolving Conflict with Janet Martinez and Stephanie Smith (Stanford University Press 2020).

Collaborative Governance and Lawyers’ Duty to Strengthen Democracy
  • Presentation Slides

9:25 to 9:45

Kelly Browe-Olson

Kelly Browe Olson is an Associate Professor and the Mediation Clinic Director at UA Little Rock Bowen School of Law. She teaches Family Law, ADR, Domestic Violence and Mediation and Family Mediation Seminars. She mediates in family, dependency/neglect and Special Education cases and oversees a state-wide Special Education mediation project. She is a national speaker on family conflict resolution, communicating through conflict, mediation, and facilitation. Professor Browe Olson serves on the Arkansas Parent Counsel and Access to Justice Commissions and on the editorial board of the Family Court Review and the ABA Dispute Resolution Magazine. She consults for the Arkansas ADR Commission and the Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She was awarded the Bowen Faculty Excellence Public Service Award in 2004 and 2013. She has a J.D. from the University of Michigan and an LL.M. in Child Law from Loyola Chicago.

Is Special Education Mediation as Substantially Fair as It Used to Be?

9:45 to 10:05

Bob Probasco

Bob Probasco is a Senior Lecturer, specializing in federal tax procedure, at Texas A&M University School of Law and directs TAMU’s Tax Dispute Resolution Clinic. Prior to joining TAMU in November 2016, he spent 15 years in private practice. He contributes frequently to the Procedurally Taxing blog and is frequently quoted on TV or in the national tax press on various tax topics. He wrote a chapter in Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS (ABA, 8th ed., 2021) and in May 2021 was a panelist at the 5th International Conference on Taxpayer Rights (Athens, moved to Zoom). He serves on the LITC (low-income taxpayer clinic) Advisory Board of the Center for Taxpayer Rights and on the ABA Section of Taxation’s Public Interest Fellowship Committee. He has been a member of the State Bar Tax Section’s governing Council since 2011 and Co-Chair of the Pro Bono Committee since 2019.

Whether/How to Incorporate ADR Into the Clinic Classroom

10:05 to 10:25

Ulla Glaesser

Prof. Dr. Ulla Glaesser, LL.M., holds a full professorship of mediation, conflict management and procedural theory at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)/Germany. She is academic director of the Institute for Conflict Management and the postgraduate, interdisciplinary Master’s Program on Mediation at the European University. She is also responsible for the key competencies portfolio and curriculum of the law department. Her academic teaching and research covers the following subject areas: mediation, conflict management, dispute systems design, Civil Procedure Law, Private Law (contracts, torts), and Family Law. Dr. Glaesser holds law degrees from the University of Bonn/Germany and from Boalt Hall School of Law, UC Berkeley/USA. She completed her Ph.D. degree at the European University Frankfurt (Oder).

Non-judicial Grievance Mechanisms in Global Supply Chains: A Systemic Approach
  • Non-judicial Grievance Mechanisms
  • Original website: www.bmj.de/DE/Themen/Menschenrechte/Wirtschaft_und_Menschenrechte/Aussergerichtliche_Beschwerdemechanismen.html

10:25 to 10:40 -- Break

10:40 to 11:00

Janet Denton

Janet Denton is currently the Director of the new Dispute Resolution Program of Tarrant County. In her private family law practice, Janet utilized collaborative law and other forms of ADR to guide families to resolution outside of court. From 2009-2021, Janet served as Director of Family Court Services in Tarrant County. In that position she developed processes for the licensed professionals to provide parent education, teach communication skills and provide ADR processes to the families in dispute in order to minimize the negative effects of litigation. Janet has B.S. in Organizational Communication from University of Texas, and a J.D. from Texas Tech University School of Law.

Improving Family Law Outcomes with Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Mediation
     • Goals Worksheet for Parents    • Mediation Process Rules

11:00 to 11:20

Angela Downes

Angela Downes is a professor at UNT Dallas College of Law in Dallas, Texas where she is Assistant Director of Experiential Education. Prof. Downes teaches clinical courses, the 40-hour mediation course, as well as domestic violence and the law: an innovative approach to interpersonal violence. Her scholarship focuses on alternative dispute resolution, diversity, cultural responsiveness, and issues of interpersonal violence including domestic violence, human trafficking, and child abuse. She is an active member of number boards and organizations. Prof. Downes was recently appointed by the Texas Governor to serve on the Texas Medical Board. Prof. Downes is also an associate Municipal Judge for the Cities of Glenn Heights and Irving, Texas, and a TMCA Board member.

Civil Discourse and Mediation Skills for the 21st Century Practitioner

11:20 to 11:40

Mark Gannon

I am a second-year law student at Texas A&M University and an in-coming citation editor for the Law Review. As the son of two doctors, health and health law topics have always fascinated me. My position as the middle child in a family of 5 kids often puts me in the position of mediator for family drama, so dispute resolution is another area of interest. The No Surprises Act is a compelling intersection of my two passions in legal scholarship and I am excited to present the results of my research to everyone.

The No Surprises Act and Technology in Dispute Resolution

Emily Earnshaw

Emily Earnshaw is a 2L law student at Texas A&M University School of Law and is the newly elected Managing Editor of the Volume 10 Board of Editors for the Texas A&M Law Review. She is a former high school English teacher and became interested in her current research into family law arbitration in Texas, in part, through her experiences helping her students. Emily’s general interest in alternative dispute resolution stems from the enthusiastic and warm instruction of all the professors involved in the Aggie Dispute Resolution Program, but more specifically from Professor Nancy Welsh with whom Emily also had the privilege to serve as a Research Assistant last summer. While Emily is yet undecided as to what area of law she would like to practice upon graduation, she knows that at least some aspect must involve ADR.

Unexpected Kissing Cousins: The Uniform Family Law Arbitration Act and Texas Family Law Arbitration

11:40 to Noon

Hiro Aragaki

Hiro N. Aragaki is a tenured professor of law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS School of Law in London. His scholarship on arbitration has won prestigious accolades and been published in top U.S. law journals. He has recently focused his attention on ADR in the developing world, particularly in Africa and Asia, and to that end is currently leading a collaborative research project into mediation institutions on the African Continent. He has provided ADR training and reform advice in several countries, most recently as an Expert Advisor to the Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee of the Indian Supreme Court, which was charged with developing a national mediation bill. He holds degrees from Yale, Stanford, and Cambridge, and is dual qualified in the U.S. and U.K. He is a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators (U.S.) and the Chartered Institute (U.K.).

Should Developing States Ratify the Singapore Convention?