ASU Law Lodestar Dispute Resolution Center faculty win CPR’s Outstanding Professional Article Award

The International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution has announced the winners of its 42nd annual awards, including two members from the Lodestar Dispute Resolution Center at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

Roselle L. Wissler, retired research director of the Lodestar Dispute Resolution Center and Art Hinshaw, associate dean for experiential learning, John J. Bouma Fellow in Alternative Dispute Resolution, clinical professor of law, faculty director of the Lodestar Dispute Resolution Center and director of the Lodestar Mediation Clinic, received CPR’s Outstanding Professional Article Award.

The award recognizes a professional article published between November 2023 and October 2024 that contributes to the understanding of alternative dispute resolution.

Wissler and Hinshaw were honored for their article, Comparing Joint Session and Caucus Outcomes: Factoring in Substantive Discussions and Case Characteristics, published in the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution. The article explores the pros and cons of beginning mediation with either a joint session or separate caucuses, depending on the substantive discussions, participant interactions and case characteristics, rather than solely on whether disputants are together or apart.

“We are grateful to CPR for recognizing the need for empirical study of what mediators and mediation participants do during initial joint sessions and initial caucuses and the effects those actions have on mediation outcomes,” Hinshaw and Wissler said in a joint statement. “The award will make more mediators aware of the findings — that some common assertions about the benefits of the parties being together or apart, per se, are not supported, but that discussions and participant interactions during the initial session play a large role in outcomes.”

The CPR Institute’s annual awards program honors outstanding scholarship and practical achievements in the field of alternative dispute resolution. The awards focus on work that addresses the resolution, prevention or creative management of major disputes involving public or business institutions between corporations, between government and corporations or among multiple parties. The review committee includes judges and lawyers from leading corporations, top law firms and academic institutions nationwide.

Written by Crystal Jimenez