Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution

What We Do

The Hugh L. Carey Center educates aspiring lawyers and accomplished practitioners in the essential values and effective skills necessary to resolve clients’ legal problems in today’s practice of law.

Living the values, honing the skills 

ACHIEVING A BETTER WIN

Lawyers are problem solvers. The Hugh L. Carey Center educates aspiring lawyers and accomplished practitioners in the essential values and effective skills necessary to resolve clients’ legal problems in today’s practice of law. Although images of lawyers cross-examining hostile witnesses and making verdict-winning summations to a jury dominate media representations of the law, the practice of law today bears little resemblance to those depictions. In today’s legal reality, most lawsuits are settled and fewer than five percent go to trial. In her March 2, 2021 State of our Judiciary remarks, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore captured New York State’s adoption of presumptive ADR “to transform the old culture of ‘litigate first’ to the new culture of ‘mediate first’ in all appropriate cases.

To practice effectively today, a lawyer must not only know how to resolve his client’s legal problems in court, but also how to negotiate settlements out of court. Today’s settlement-focused legal practice also requires lawyers to be knowledgeable about the different dispute resolution processes that may help resolve a client’s case: arbitration, negotiation, mediation, summary jury trial, mini-trial, early neutral evaluation and online dispute resolution. What an exciting time to become a lawyer!

Clients, too, are seeking lawyers who are problem-solvers. As clients become more attuned to the costs of litigation, lawyers can no longer focus on winning at all costs. Instead, the lawyer of today must know how to work with her client and the other side to achieve a better win. Achieving a better win requires working with the client, the other party, and the other party’s attorney to select an appropriate dispute resolution process to achieve the most effective and expeditious solution, all the while respecting the humanity and dignity of all.

Whether you are interested in a career in international law, corporate, bankruptcy, criminal, labor and employment, public interest, family, intellectual property or have not yet decided your practice area of choice, the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution will educate you about the problem-solving advocacy and dispute resolution skills you will need to become an effective lawyer in both the domestic and global arenas of today’s legal practice.

With its mission of developing conflict resolution as both a value and a practice in students' professional lives, communities, and the world, The Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution at St. John's School of Law offers courses, conferences, clinics and co-curricular activities that make the Law School a leader in the growing field of alternative dispute resolution. The Center is named in honor of Hugh L. Carey '51, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as the 51st Governor of New York, was a master of the better win. The Governor is known for helping to save New York City from bankruptcy during the fiscal crisis of the 1970s.

We encourage you to explore our site to see the many ways we promote conflict resolution as a value and as a practice. You can also read the Center's 2017 newsletter (PDF), 2018 newsletter (PDF), 2019 newsletter (PDF), 2020 newsletter (PDF), or 2021 newsletter (PDF). Connect with us on Facebook. Please email Professor Greenberg at [email protected] with your questions.

To support the Center and its initiatives, please visit the Law School's online giving page or contact the Office of Development and Alumni Relations at [email protected] or 718-990-5792.

Your dispute resolution education begins when you are a 1L

During your first year as a St. John’s Law student, your dispute resolution education begins with Lawyering.  Lawyering is offered during the January intersession. In this intensive, interactive course, you will introduced to negotiation skills and the companion skills of interviewing and drafting through a combination of lectures, exercises and simulations.

Following the completion of Lawyering, first year students are invited to participate in the 1L Internal Negotiation Competition. What a great opportunity for first year students to hone their negotiation skills learned in Lawyering and receive invaluable feedback about your negotiation.

Interested students are also invited to apply for membership in the Dispute Resolution Society (DRS).

Professor Elayne E. Greenberg, the Faculty Director of the Carey Center and Faculty Advisor to DRS, is available to discuss dispute resolution learning opportunities throughout your time at St. John’s Law. Please consider her a resource if you want to discuss internships, externships, scholarly topics or course selection related to dispute resolution.

Contacts Us

Elayne E. Greenberg
Professor of Legal Practice
Faculty Director, Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution
St. John's University School of Law
8000 Utopia Parkway
Queens, NY 11439
Tel. 718-990-8188  
Mobile 917-929-0784
Email: [email protected]
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1485086

Our Program

*In an abundance of caution because of the increase in Covid cases, FINRA and the Carey Center will be holding this year's Triathlon virtually*

The Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon is a joint initiative of the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). For two days, student teams from law schools around the country meet to test their advocacy skills in the negotiation, mediation and arbitration of a securities dispute.

The Triathlon is not a competition of physical endurance, but of dispute resolution competence. Students play the roles of attorneys and clients, with some teams in the role of investor and others in the role of broker-dealer. Members of FINRA’s roster of experienced neutrals serve as mediators, arbitrators and judges, critiquing the student teams and offering the students an invaluable real-life experience. By challenging students to negotiate, mediate, and arbitrate in a single competition, this one-of-a-kind event gives students an opportunity to hone their advocacy skills in a realistic and comprehensive securities dispute experience.

Teams are composed of three students, and the competition takes place over two days. On Saturday morning, one student plays the role of attorney, one plays the role of client, and one plays the role of settlement counsel as the teams negotiate. Saturday afternoon, the students switch roles and engage in a mediation. On Sunday, the teams arbitrate, with one student attorney conducting direct examination, one student attorney conducting cross-examination, and one student playing the role of client.

Three judges drawn from FINRA's roster judge each of the rounds.  Awards are given for Excellence in Negotiation, Excellence in Mediation Advocacy, and Excellence in Arbitration Advocacy, as well as the award to the Triathlon Champion and the Advocate's Choice Award, which goes to the team voted by the competitors as having the highest degree of skill, competence and professionalism.

2022 Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon

Dates
Saturday, October 15, 2022 and Sunday, October 16, 2022

*Location
In an abundance of caution because of the increase in Covid cases, FINRA and the Carey Center will be holding this year's Triathlon virtually.

Fee
Early Bird has been extended |  $545 per three-person team | Pay by Friday, July 1 at noon EST.
Regular | $595 per three-person team | Pay by Tuesday, August 16 at noon EST.

Registration
Please complete the registration and payment page in its entirety as this information will be used throughout the competition. Once you submit the form, you will not be able to resubmit or change the information. If you would like to send two teams, please note that one of your teams will be guaranteed a place, and the second team will be placed on a wait list if there is space available after the registration deadline of Tuesday, August 16, 2022, at noon EST. Teams on the wait list will be notified in the order they were received. 

If you prefer to pay by check, please contact Iris Diaz at [email protected]. Please register by Tuesday, August 16, 2022 by 12:00 p.m. EST. Teams that register can expect the Triathlon materials by Friday, September 2 at 12:00 p.m. EST. 

More Information
If you have any questions about participation in the Triathlon, please contact Professor Elayne E. Greenberg at [email protected]. Please direct your questions about competition logistics to Iris Diaz at [email protected]. For general information, visit the Triathlon Website.

 

Securities Dispute Resolution Problems (2009-2022)

2022 Triathlon Problem (PDF)

2021 Triathlon Problem (PDF)

2019 Triathlon Problem (PDF)

2018 Triathlon Problem (PDF)

2017 Triathlon Problem (PDF)

2016 Triathlon Problem (PDF)

2015 Triathlon Problem (PDF)

2014 Triathlon Problem (PDF)

2013 Triathlon Problem  (PDF)

2012 Triathlon Problem (PDF)

2011 Triathlon Problem  (PDF)

2010 Triathlon Problem (PDF)

2009 Triathlon Problem (PDF)

St. John's boasts a wealth of faculty with expertise in the field of Dispute Resolution.  The Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution is guided by:

Elayne E. Greenberg
Assistant Dean of Dispute Resolution Programs
Professor of Legal Skills
Director, Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution
Elayne E. Greenberg became the first Director of the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution at St. John's in 2009. She offers an unmatched breadth and depth of experience in dispute resolution. She is a mediator and conflict management consultant who has developed programs, educated, trained, written and lectured nationally on the subject of negotiation, mediation, hybrid dispute resolution processes, dispute resolution ethics and advocacy in dispute resolution.

Elaine M. Chiu
Professor of Law
Faculty Director, Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights 
Elaine Chiu teaches a wide range of classes including Family Law, Criminal Law, Comparative Criminal Law, Introduction to Law and Contemporary Criminal Justice. She incorporates dispute resolution skills in her Family Law course with a negotiation simulation. In her scholarship, Professor Chiu focuses on the intersection between family law and criminal law. Most recently, she has written about domestic violence and the legal regulation of culturally motivated parenting. Professor Chiu is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Cornell University and was a state prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for several years upon graduation. Additionally, Professor Chiu has taught at Cardozo School of Law and Harvard Law School.

Our Securities Arbitration Clinic is led by:

Christine Lazaro
Acting Director, Securities Arbitration Clinic
Christine Lazaro is an experienced securities dispute resolution advocate. She supervises students in the Securities Arbitration Clinic and coaches dispute resolution competition teams.

In addition, St. John's boasts an impressive roster of full-time faculty members who teach, write, and/or practice in the field of Dispute Resolution, and contribute their energies and expertise to the growth of Dispute Resolution at St. John's, including:

Mark L. Movsesian
Frederick A. Whitney Professor of Contract Law
Mark Movsesian teaches International Commercial Arbitration, as well as Contracts and Comparative Law & Religion.  A former clerk to Justice David Souter of the United States Supreme Court, his publications have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Virginia Journal of International Law, Washington & Lee Law Review, and Cardozo Law Review, among many others.

Ettie Ward
Professor of Law and Director, International and Comparative Sports Law LL.M. Program
Ettie Ward is a practicing mediator who also specializes in international dispute resolution and complex litigation. She has coached and helped train St. John's law students for mediation competitions. Her publications include "Mandatory Court-Annexed Alternative Dispute Resolution in the United States Federal Courts: Panacea or Pandemic", published as part of St. John’s School of Law’s Symposium on Transatlantic Perspectives on ADR. She is active in professional and bar associations in the area of dispute resolution, including the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution and the AALS Section of Dispute Resolution, and is a frequent lecturer on dispute resolution.

Peter J. Bernbaum
Mediator, Arbitrator, and Attorney 
Professor Bernbaum has more than 30 years of experience negotiating settlements and other agreements for parties to disputes and for clients in a broad spectrum of industries and encompassing a wide range of legal matters. He teaches Drafting ADR Documents and Intensive Negotiation.

Nancy M. Thevenin
Special Counsel, Baker McKenzie LLP.
Professor Thevenin is global coordinator for Baker & McKenzie’s International Arbitration Practice Group.  Her experience includes both arbitration and mediation under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”) and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution of the American Arbitration Association. She specializes in international commercial litigation, international arbitration, creditors’ rights and business torts. She teaches International Commercial Arbitration.

Scott E. Mollen
Partner, Herrick Feinstein, LLP.  
Professor Mollen is an experienced mediator and attorney. He serves on the Board of Editors of the New York Law Journal, for which he writes a weekly column. Professor Mollen teaches Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Patricia Montana 
Professor of Legal Writing and Director of St. John’s Street Law Program
Professor Montana currently teaches Legal Writing I, Legal Writing II, and Drafting: Federal Civil Practice. As the Director of the Street Law program, she teaches the Legal Education in the Community seminar and oversees the law students’ teaching at a local high school in Flushing, New York. Professor Montana’s scholarship focuses on legal writing theory and pedagogy as well as professional skills instruction. Professor Montana will begin teaching the Lawyering course, a mandatory 2-credit intersession course for all first-year students, in January 2015.        

Jeff Sovern
Professor of Law at St. John's University School of Law where he covers dispute resolution in his course in Civil Procedure and arbitration in his Consumer Protection class. He recently collaborated with Professors Greenberg and Kirgis and the Carey Center in obtaining a grant from the American Association for Justice to study consumer arbitration; a draft of their article on consumer arbitration should be posted to the web this fall. He is the co-author of a casebook on consumer law (along with Professors Spanogle, Rohner, Pridgen, and Peterson), published by West in 2013, which includes cases and materials on arbitration and he blogs on arbitration at the Consumer Law and Policy Blog, at clpblog.org.

The Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution produces its Carey Center Newsletter annually in the fall to highlight its programs, events, and initiatives.

We welcome your feedback and ideas. Please contact the Center's director, Professor Elayne E. Greenberg, at [email protected] or 718-990-8188.

 

 

2021 Newsletter
2020 Newsletter
2019 Newsletter 
2018 Newsletter 
2017 Newsletter 

This forty-hour bankruptcy mediation training was created for bankruptcy practitioners and corporate attorneys who are also involved with bankruptcy matters. Participants will not only learn about the specialized mediation issues for bankruptcy mediators, but lawyers will learn about how to be better advocates in mediation. Those who want to learn about mediation, experienced mediators and advocates will all benefit from this training.

St. John's alums are being offered this training at a 20% discounted rate off the $3,400 registration fee (use the code "FRIEND"). As an added bonus, your registration fee includes a year's membership in the American Bankruptcy Institute and up to forty CLE credits. Enrollment is limited to thirty. All you need to register is a $200 non-refundable deposit. The balance will not be due until November 1, 2018.

Register here.

If three people in your firm wish to attend the training, we are offering the training for a group of 3 at $7,500. For those who wish to receive the group discount, please contact Allyson Donohue at ABI, [email protected], to enroll your group.

If you have any questions or wish to learn more about the training, please contact Professor Elayne E. Greenberg at 718-990-8188 ([email protected]).