Our Programs

The Carey Center innovates in the field of dispute resolution through its interdisciplinary conferences, groundbreaking trainings, and experiential learning initiatives.

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The Carey Center's many programs include:

Scholarly Programs
The Carey Center provides resources and a forum for a range of scholarly activities that enrich the intellectual life of the Law School and the University. Scholarly programs focus on the public policy, justice and ethics issues surrounding dispute resolution. The Center brings top-flight scholars to St. John’s from other universities in the United States and around the world. Programs draw on the resources of the entire University, in recognition of the fact that the practice of law in general, and dispute resolution in particular, increasingly demand an interdisciplinary approach.

The Securities Arbitration Clinic
The Law School's Securities Arbitration Clinic represents low-income investors in disputes involving the securities industry. Many of these clients are elderly investors defrauded of savings by brokers. The Carey Center works with the Securities Arbitration Clinic to promote the development of negotiation, mediation and arbitration skills and to study the increasing use of alternative dispute resolution both in securities disputes and in other contexts, including international commercial disputes.

Experiential Learning
The Carey Center provides opportunities for St. John’s law students to participate in a range of practical programs devoted to dispute resolution. For example, through the Matrimonial Dispute Resolution Externship, students work in the Matrimonial Part of the Nassau County Supreme Court, assisting judges with the integration of dispute resolution processes in family and divorce matters.  Students in the Employment Dispute Resolution Externship are placed with the EEOC, where they work directly with advocates and neutrals in the mediation of employment disputes.

International Programs in Dispute Resolution
In our increasingly globalized world, dispute resolution professionals must navigate different legal systems and different cultures. The Carey Center is a leader in international dispute resolution, providing both a forum for the scholarly exploration of international dispute resolution as well as skills training and global outreach. In the summer of 2011, the Carey Center co-hosted, with the Center for Labor and Employment Law, a conference at Cambridge University titled Worlds of Work: Dispute Resolution Systems Across the Globe. The Carey Center is also partnering with Fordham Law School and the Giving to Ghana Foundation to provide mediation training at the Catholic University in Sunyani, Ghana. And students placed in the Human Rights Externship work in NGOs under the guidance of the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, learning the skills of conflict resolution and prevention in the global human rights arena.

The Dispute Resolution Society
The Center provides funding and support to the St. John’s Dispute Resolution Society, a student-run organization that conducts annual intraschool competitions in negotiation, mediation advocacy, and/or arbitration and places competitors in external competitions where they compete against students from other law schools in the United States and around the world. Competitions include:

  • ABA Client Counseling Competition
  • ABA Negotiation Competition
  • ABA Representing Clients in Mediation Competition
  • ABA Arbitration Competition
  • Tulane Baseball Arbitration Competition
  • ICC Mediation Competition in Paris, France
  • Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Competition in Vienna, Austria
  • St. John's University School of Law Intramural Negotiation Competitions
  • St. John's University School of Law/FINRA Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon

Professional Training
The Carey Center provides continuing legal education programs to help professionals hone their skills in negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and other dispute resolution practices. Among its recent offerings include a groundbreaking Bankruptcy Mediation Training, conducted in partnership with the American Bankruptcy Institute and brining prominent bankruptcy judges and practitioners to New York to hone the skills of bankruptcy mediation.