The Lodestar Mediation Clinic, an integral component of the nationally recognized Lodestar Dispute Resolution Center, provides students the opportunity to learn about alternatives to litigation while gaining practical experience about the mediation process. Student attorneys experience an intensive training program focusing on the theory, strategy, and skills involved in the mediation of legal disputes, then act as mediators in civil (non-family) cases.
Lodestar Mediation Clinic
What students do:
- Act as mediators who help Justice Court litigants attempt to resolve their lawsuits before trial.
- Shadow and co-mediate with professional mediators from the EEOC and judges conducting settlement conferences.
- Mediate a federal sector EEOC claim with an instructor from class.
Course information
The Mediation Clinic is a one-semester course.
- Credits: four graded credits
- Enrollment is limited to six students.
- Students will undergo and must be able to pass a background check per Maricopa County Justice Court regulations.
- No course pre - or co - requisites.
- Students have the option of completing their graduation writing requirement by enrolling in a one-credit, pass/fail independent study with a 25-page paper requirement. Registration instructions will be provided during the first week of classes.
Time commitment
- Students are expected to spend a minimum of 180 hours of clinical work during the one semester.
- Students must attend a three-day pre-semester training program the week prior to the start of classes before class begins. Please note your calendar and hold those days open in the event you are offered a seat in the clinic. The training days will not be rescheduled if it conflicts with the administration of the MPRE.
- Classes meet twice weekly.
- Mediations will be scheduled on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays beginning three to four weeks after classes begin. Students are advised to block one of those days in full and at least one half-day in order to conduct their mediations.
Student Applications Dates for Clinic:
Students may apply via Atlas during the application period listed below.
Spring 2025:
Not offered
Fall 2025: Application period: TBD Offers extended to students: TBD Student accept/decline due: TBD
**IMPORTANT!* - Externships and Clinics – Students who have applied for an externship or clinic and been accepted may decline upon offer without consequence. However, once a student has accepted an externship or clinic, any student who drops the externship or clinic without prior approval by the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs will be subject to a 12-month ban from clinical courses.
Our People
Art Hinshaw Clinical Professor of Law
Susan Bulfinch Adjunct Professor of Law