To learn more about the Clinical Curriculum and Registration, please visit our Clinical Registration Center. You can also find more information on How to Register for Clinics and How Clinical Credits Work.

For more information about this clinic, please visit the Clinic Website, Clinic Q&A and OCP Blog Highlights.

Enrollment in this clinic may fulfill the HLS JD pro bono requirement depending on project assignment. Please contact the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs (clinical@law.harvard.edu) for more information.

Required Class Component: Designing Dispute Systems for Justice (2 fall classroom credits). Some seats are saved for clinical students. HLS students who enroll in this clinic will be enrolled in the required course by the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs. Cross registrants need to petition for both the clinic and the course in my.harvard. Students who drop this clinic will also lose their seat in the required class component.

Additional Co-/Pre-Requisites: Taking Negotiation Workshop prior to the clinic is recommended, but not required. 

Add/Drop Deadline: December 12, 2025.

By Permission: No.

LLM Students: LLM students may enroll in this clinic through Helios.

Placement Site: HLS.

At the Dispute Systems Design Clinic, we help our clients design and improve practical, inclusive mechanisms to prevent and learn from conflict. Working across four distinct practice areas—court-connected systems, community systems, organizational systems, and peacebuilding systems—we seek to engage conflict as a source of value. Because we believe that systems should be informed by the people they affect, we place listening to and learning from stakeholders at the heart of our work. Informed by stakeholder perspectives, dispute systems design theory, and best practices in the field, we help build more effective and inclusive systems for handling conflict.

DSD Clinic students typically work in teams of 2-3, with a single client organization and a faculty supervisor, for the duration of the semester, in one of the following practice areas:

• Community-centered systems: We support groups working collectively to strengthen connection and build social and economic justice within their communities.
• Court-connected systems: We consult with courts to increase substantive and procedural justice through ADR processes.
• Peacebuilding systems: We collaborate with organizations and coalitions to build and navigate participatory systems for sustainable peace.
• Organizational systems: We help mission-driven organizations design and refine conflict resolution systems to improve their effectiveness.

They will have the opportunity to build the following skills in their day-to-day work:

• Working as a team
• Designing stakeholder-centered, systems-oriented approaches to engaging conflict;
• Gathering a wide range of perspectives through interviews, focus groups, surveys, and other qualitative research methods
• Managing client relationships
• Facilitating meetings
• Writing and presenting deliverables
• Managing complex projects