David A. Hoffman

Teaching

Since 2008, David has taught the Mediation course at Harvard Law School.  He also teaches courses on Legal Profession: Collaborative Law and Diversity and Dispute Resolution.  Before teaching at HLS, he was an Adjunct Professor at Northeastern University School of Law (teaching Alternative Dispute Resolution and Negotiation).  He has also been a lead trainer in several mediation trainings for the American Bar Association and the Program on Negotiation.

Law and Dispute Resolution Practice

David is the founding member of Boston Law Collaborative, LLC (“BLC”), where he serves as a mediator, arbitrator, and attorney.  Prior to founding BLC, he was a litigation partner at the Boston law firm Hill & Barlow, where he practiced for 17 years and chaired the Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group.  David also served for a year as staff counsel for the ACLU of Massachusetts.

David mediates and arbitrates cases at BLC ranging from business, employment, construction, intellectual property, and professional liability to divorce and other family-related disputes.  BLC is a multi-disciplinary practice that includes lawyers, mediators, coaches, trainers, and ombudspeople.  BLC is the winner of two national awards – the American Bar Association’s “Lawyer as Problem Solver Award” (2009), and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution “Law Firm Award for Excellence in ADR” (2010).

David is past chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, and a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators.  He has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American College of Civil Trial Mediators, and the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution gave him its D’Alemberte-Raven Award, the Section’s highest honor.

David is listed in the book “The Best Lawyers in America” published by U.S. News & World Report in five categories (Mediation, Arbitration, Collaborative Law – Civil, Collaborative Law – Family, and Family Law Mediation), including Boston’s Lawyer of the Year for 2022 in the field of Arbitration.  He has been listed in Boston’s Super Lawyers Directory each year since the listing began.  And he is listed in Boston Magazine’s Top Lawyers for 2022.  Hoffman has also been recognized by the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation (John Fiske Award for Excellence in Mediation, 2011) and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (Scholar-Mentor Award 2014).

Education

David is a graduate of Princeton University (A.B. 1970, summa cum laude), Cornell University (M.A. 1974, American Studies, all but dissertation completed toward Ph.D.), and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1984, magna cum laude), where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.  He clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for Hon. Stephen G. Breyer.

In 1991 David was trained as an arbitrator by the American Arbitration Association, and in 1992 as a mediator by the Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution.  In 2000, he was trained in Collaborative Law by the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council.  In 2019, he completed Level One training in the Internal Family Systems model from the IFS Institute, and in 2022 earned a Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University.

Personal

David lives in Acton, Massachusetts. He has three children.

Areas of Interest

·         Dispute Resolution: Mediation

·         Negotiation

·         Legal Ethics

·         Diversity

·         Psychology of Conflict

Additional Information

Representative Publications

Books

Mediation: A Practice Guide for Mediators, Lawyers, and Other Professionals (Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education 2013)

Bringing Peace into the Room: How the Personal Qualities of the Mediator Impact the Process of Conflict Resolution (with co-editor Daniel Bowling) (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2003)

Massachusetts Alternative Dispute Resolution (2 vols.) (Michie/Butterworth Legal Publishers, 1994) (with co-author David Matz and a foreword by Prof. Frank E.A. Sander)

Book Chapters

Mediating Family Business Disputes: A Primer for Clients, Family Business Advisors and Other Professionals, in Sustaining Family Enterprise (ed. Richard Narva, 2016)

Cultural and Diversity Issues in Mediation and Negotiation, in The Massachusetts General Hospital Guide to Cultural Sensitivity and Diversity in Mental Health (ed. Ranna Parekh, 2013) (with co-author Katherine Triantafillou)

The Whistleblower: Mediating an Employment Termination Dispute, in Stories Mediators Tell (eds. Eric R. Galton & Lela P. Love, 2012)

Cooperative Negotiation Agreements: Using Contracts to Make a Safe Place for a Difficult Conversation, in Innovations in Family Law Practice (eds. K.B. Olson & N. VerSteegh) (Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, 2008)

Articles

Follow the Science: Proven Strategies for Reducing Unconscious Bias (with co-author Helen Winter)

Teaching Diversity at Harvard Law School, Or: The Education of a Straight, White, Cis-Gender, Able-Bodied, Upper-Middle-Class, Male Lecturer on Law, 27 ABA Dispute Resolution Magazine 24 (Summer 2021)

To Disclose or Not to Disclose: That is the Question in Collaborative Law, 58 Fam. Court Rev. 83 (2020) (with co-author Andrew Schepard)

The Psychology of Mediation, 14 Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution 759 (2013) (with co-author Dr. Richard Wolman).

Mediation and the Art of Shuttle Diplomacy, 27 Negotiation Journal 263 (2011)

Mediation, Multiple Minds, and Managing the Negotiation Within, 16 Harvard Negotiation Law Review 297 (2011)

Building Bridges to Resolve Conflict and Overcome the “Prisoner’s Dilemma”: The Vital Role of Professional Relationships in the Collaborative Law Process

Op-ed: Microsoft and Yahoo: Where were the mediators?  It works for countries and couples – why not businesses?, Christian Science Monitor (May 12, 2008)

Leveling the Playing Field for Workplace Neutrals: A Proposal for Achieving Racial and Ethnic Diversity, American Arbitration Association Dispute Resolution Journal (February/April 2008) (with co-author Lamont Stallworth)

Colliding Worlds of Dispute Resolution: Towards a Unified Field Theory of ADR, 2008 Journal of Dispute Resolution 11 (2008)

The Future of ADR Practice: Three Hopes, Three Fears, and Three Predictions, Negotiation Journal (October 2006)

Bringing Peace into the Room: The Personal Qualities of the Mediator and Their Impact on the Mediation, 16 Negotiation Journal 5 (2000) (with co-author Daniel Bowling)

Ten Principles of Mediation Ethics, 18 Alternatives 147 (September 2000)

Mediation and the Unauthorized Practice of Law: Do Mediators Have a Well-Founded Fear of Prosecution?  6 ABA Dispute Resolution Magazine 20 (2000) (with co-author Natasha Affolder), also at www.Mediate.com

Op-ed: The Death Penalty is Not a Solution, Boston Sunday Globe (June 4, 1995) (reprinted in 141 Congressional Record H1 (August 2, 1995)

View all publications by David A. Hoffman