Required Clinic Component: Harvard Mediation Clinic (1 spring clinical credit). This clinic and course are bundled; your enrollment in the clinic will automatically enroll you in this required course.

Additional Co-/Pre-Requisites: Clinic students must complete the entirety of the mandatory basic mediation training with the Harvard Mediation Program (“HMP”) before or during the semester they participate in the clinic. The training is offered as a two weekend immersive experience and It is anticipated that the training dates for 2021-2022 will be: October 2-3 and October 16-17, 2021 (Fall) OR February 5-6 and February 19-20, 2022 (Spring). For more information regarding the basic mediation training, including confirmed training dates, please visit the Harvard Mediation Program website. Students must be able to participate in the full four days of training (or have previously completed HMP’s basic training course) to be eligible to mediate.

By Permission: No.

Add/Drop Deadline: December 3, 2021.

LLM Students: LLM students may apply to the clinic through the LLM General Clinic Application.

This 1-credit seminar is the required classroom component for students doing work through the Mediation Clinic. Students will read and discuss works related to: the legal, procedural and practical context in which we mediate; frameworks for evaluating the quality and efficacy of our work as mediators; handling challenges to mediator neutrality, impartiality, and ethics; working with parties to prepare effective settlement agreements; and understanding the role of party-advocates in a mediation context. Some sessions will require students to present problems related to the clinical work in which they are currently engaged to the members of the class for discussion and brainstorming. Students will submit approximately five short written journal entries reflecting on their mediation experience/observations and the new learning and challenges that they have grappled with while mediating cases, and a final 7-10 page paper in the form of an extended journal entry.

Note: Rather than a one-hour session each week, it is anticipated that this seminar will meet for 1.5-2 hour sessions concentrated in the latter half of the semester, after the required training has been completed.