7/31/2019 Creighton Law Students Seek to Apply Mediation Both
Globally and Locally
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Jeri Hunter, now in her third year of Creigh-
ton Law School, was at her home in Abilene,
TX, on the morning of September 11, 2001,
she says, when her husband called to tell
her to turn on the television. While she did
not know anyone who died or was injured onthat day, as she
watched the events unfold,
she knew it would affect her family. Hunters
husband is an Air Force officer, and she was
sure he would be involved in whatever fol-
lowed.
For Hunter, seeing children overseas danc-
ing in the streets to celebrate the attack
changed her life. It was l ike a switch when I
saw that, she says. The sight pushed her to
go to law school, to show her own children
that education is important, and to teach oth-
ers how to solve their differences without
flying planes into buildings. That television
image made her think. I can do something,
she says. I want to make the world a better
place.
Hunter came to law school seeking legal
training in alternative dispute resolution
(ADR) focusing on mediation. She sees
mediation as essential to certain types of dis-
putes, such as those in family law, and she
hopes if we use mediation now, then more
people will accept it, and the more expectedit will be down the
road.
Suzanne Kaufman-McNamara, also a third-
year law student at Creighton, sees media-
tion and ADR as useful tools in her ideal
legal practice: helping families with legal
issues when they are neither rich enough
for personal attorneys, nor poor enough to
receive free legal aid. Its a group I really
want to reach out to, she says.
Kaufman-McNamara will embark on her sec-
ond career after graduation, having worked
for 20 years with the Air Force as a Russianlinguist. She is
working toward her dispute
resolution certificate. She took a mediation
class this past fall, and, she says, Im sold
on it.
After getting accepted to Creighton Law,
Hunter says she was surprised that the
school had such limited classes in ADR.
This limitation will soon change with the
launch of the Werner Institute for Dispute
Resolution at the school next year.
While too late for Hunter as a law student,
she will be able to take advantage of the
institutes seminars for practicing lawyers,
which are planned to be a large part of the
offerings. Id really like to be a part of it,
says Hunter. ADR should be part of every
law school curriculum, she says.
Especially in family law, Hunter says,
courtrooms just make it worse. Mediation
is a saner way to do business, she says.
Theres nothing like being able to come up
with your own solution.
There is even room for ADR in tax law, says
Hunter, who is interning with the IRS right
now. For example, if someone owes taxes
and does not realize it, instead of dragging
the person to court, the IRS often will negoti-
ate with the person and drop some penalties
or draw up a payment plan in exchange for
a commitment to pay. Eventually, Hunter
would like to help small business owners and
individuals work out disputes through ADR.
To expand their ADR horizons further, both
Hunter and Kaufman-McNamara participatedlast week in a
conference on collabora-
tive law, held at Creighton Law during the
schools spring break. The two were selected
by their mediation professor, Ron Volkmer,
to fill slots at the conference offered to a few
students by the planners.
Collaborative law is not the same thing as
mediation. There is no mediator, just the
representatives of each side and the parties
themselves. Collaborative law can involve
teams comprised of a lawyer, the client, and
a mental-heath professional on each side.
Then there is a financial advisor who gives
advice to both parties.
In collaborative law, all involved agree to find
a solution and agree not to take the case to
court. If one side does so, then that person
cannot use the same team in court. This
provision is to maintain the motivation of all
involved to reach a settlement and because
information shared during the process can-
not be used in court.
For both parties in a divorce, for example,
knowing financial information and getting ad-
vice from both a lawyer and a mental-heath
professional ensure no power imbalance,
says Hunter. This allows the sides to work
out an agreement on equal footing.
Some disputes belong in court, Kaufman-
Creighton Law Students Seek to Apply Mediation Both Globally
and
Locally[by Erica Winter]Anything can bring someone to law
school. Often, law school looks like a path to a steady job. Or
becoming a lawyer seems like a good way to make some
money. Some want to add legal knowledge to a career already in
progress. Others just really like to argue. Then there are those
who want to change the
worldor just the life of one per sonby learn ing a new way to
settle disputes.
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