Robert Bordone

An op-ed by Wendy Jacobs, Robert Bordone, and Hrafnhildur Bragadottir. Economic growth and success depend on innovative and resourceful management of natural resources. In Israel and Palestine, among the world’s most arid regions, where high population growth strains natural resources, finding ways to cooperate around water quality and quantity issues is imperative. Cooperation is essential for public health and safety from untreated sewage and agricultural runoff and to meet everyone’s increasing needs for safe water. Water quality and quantity depends on cooperation precisely because water flows without regard to political boundaries.

Whether looking for some reason, any reason, to support one candidate over another, or just wanting to watch high-stakes political mud wrestling, millions of Americans will tune in Monday night to see Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump face off in the first of three presidential debates...“In my view, they’ve gotten morphed into less about the candidates’ actual substantive views on an issue, and it’s turned into a slugfest and who can have the sound bite for the next morning. And that just seems to me to be counter to helping informed citizens in a democracy make an educated choice about who they might select for their leader,” said Robert Bordone, Thaddeus R. Beal Clinical Professor of Law and director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program at HLS. “I think most viewers expect to see sound bites and fights, and that sort of expectation sets up the debates. It’s almost like the incentives to have a healthy dialogue between the two, with a debate on issues, are not there,” said lecturer Heather Kulp, who has co-written with Bordone about the need to overhaul the way presidential debates are run. “I think we underestimate what people would be interested in seeing.”

It’s no secret that many of today’s young people could use a little more money in their pockets. Between student loan payments, sluggish wages and historically high rent costs, 20-somethings are often struggling to make ends meet. And yet, many don’t do the one thing in their control to change that...Often they’re just happy to land that first job and don’t want to rock the boat, says Robert Bordone, the director of the Negotiation and Mediation Clinic at Harvard Law School...Bordone and a team of his students are working with the White House to develop a suite of tools to help students, particularly those at community colleges, negotiate salaries at their first jobs...MarketWatch spoke with Bordone about how young people can make sure they get paid fairly, even when they think they don’t have a ton of leverage.

An op-ed by Robert C. Bordone and Sara E. del Nido Budish. The video’s brevity doesn’t make it easier to watch. A 17-year-old boy walks along a Chicago street when several police cruisers pull up alongside him. He steps away and, seconds later, a single officer fires multiple rounds — 16, we learn later — leaving the boy dead. No officers appear to come to the victim’s aid. From South Carolina to Chicago, deeply disturbing video clips are fast becoming Exhibit A in debates over racial injustice and mistreatment...But the videos do little to address the root causes of the racial tensions underlying our society. It is easy and tempting to believe that seeing what happened will reveal the truth, and that, from there, conflict, resistance and dissension will be resolved. But we fool ourselves if we imagine that by creating a video record, people are more likely to agree about what happened and how to respond.

So you're going to ask for a raise...Head to the negotiation armed with facts. "Information is going to be your best friend," says Robert Bordone, founding director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program at Harvard Law School. Otherwise, he adds, "If you're just going to haggle, that's going to be a real challenge."

Perturbed by the incivility that has permeated political discourse in town the past couple years, a local clergy association has enlisted the help of outside mediators to solve the problem. Through the collaboration, the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program and Sudbury Clergy Association will hold listening sessions and focus groups with townspeople this coming spring with the aim of figuring out what’s wrong in Sudbury...“HNMCP is deeply honored to have been invited by the Sudbury Clergy Association to provide counsel and advice based on our experience in negotiation and conflict management,” professor Robert Bordone, the program’s director, said in a statement.

An op-ed by by Robert C. Bordone and Sara E. del Nido [clinical fellow]. On Tuesday, Nov. 12, President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China announced a climate accord that demonstrates real promise in making progress to stem global climate change. The climate accord also represents something that is rarely achieved in the struggle to come together around environmental issues: a long-term agreement that meets the interests of both parties; lays the groundwork for future actions by other key players; fundamentally changes the strategic negotiation game; and takes substantial steps toward solving the problem of collective action.