Professor Harold (Hal) Abramson has been deeply involved in the development and practice of the specialized field of domestic and international dispute resolution for over eighteen years of his more than twenty-five years in the legal profession. He serves as a mediator, facilitator, and arbitrator and contributes as a teacher/trainer, author, and participant on professional committees.

Professor Abramson is a full-time faculty member at Touro Law Center where he served for nine years as vice dean responsible for academic programs, faculty development, and international programs. He teaches courses on administrative law, business organizations, dispute resolution methods including mediation representation and international mediation, government regulation of business, remedies, domestic and international sales, and international business and trade. He has been teaching dispute resolution courses at Cardozo Law School since 2000. He publishes extensively in the areas of mediation representation and international mediation.

At Touro, Professor Abramson established the law school’s first summer abroad program, at Russia’s premier university, Moscow State University. As an ABA CEELI Specialist in Russia, he worked on a number of law reform projects when Russia began its transition to democracy. After leaving his vice dean position, he stayed involved in broader developments in legal education by first serving for three years on the Committee on Professional Development (CLE for law professors) of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and now as a member of the small AALS Resource Corp that facilitates retreats at other law schools.

Prior to joining the Touro faculty, he worked in both private practice and state government for seven years where he first litigated contract disputes in a civil legal services office and then helped formulate business regulatory policies and litigated complex regulatory cases for a New York State agency.

Professor Abramson has been on the forefront of defining and developing the field of mediation representation by researching and formulating materials, publishing articles and a book, training lawyers, and teaching law students throughout the United States and abroad. His award winning book, MEDIATION REPRESENTATION-ADVOCATING IN A PROBLEM-SOLVING PROCESS (recipient of the 2004 Book Award of the CPR Institute of Dispute Resolution) has been adopted in over thirty law schools and by NITA (National Institute for Trial Advocacy), the premier trainers of trial lawyers. Since 2000, he has been regularly training students and litigators on how to effectively represent clients in mediation. He also designs training programs include serving as NITA’s primary consultant in helping it launch a national mediation advocacy training program and as a consultant to a large international insurance company for designing and implementing a program to train its attorneys and claims professionals.

He also has been deeply involved in formulating mediation representation competitions for law students domestically and internationally, first for the American Bar Association, as Chair of the Rules Committee (received ABA service award) and then for the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) in Paris as a member of its inaugural drafting committee for its first annual International Mediation Competition and as a judge in the Finals.

Professor Abramson’s domestic and international neutral experience includes mediating, facilitating, and arbitrating business, organizational, and public policy disputes. He has mediated intellectual property disputes as well as disputes involving employment, service, licensing, purchase, distribution, and international business contracts. His international mediations have involved parties from Belgium, France, China, Columbia, Egypt, Guinea, India, Israel, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Russia, Slovenia, South Korea, and Venezuela. He has arbitrated business disputes, including professional disciplinary cases for seven years as a member of the New York State Board of Public Accountancy. He also has facilitated the feasibility stage of a “negotiated rulemaking” process and long-term planning processes at law schools.

Professor Abramson has written extensively on international mediation including co-authoring a textbook, International Conflict Resolution-ADR Consensual Process (West, 2005). Currently, he is co-authoring an article with a dispute resolution expert at CIETAC in Beijing on comparing mediation practices in China and the West, and preparing a book on international mediation representation.

He serves on various mediation and arbitration rosters including the rosters of the American Arbitration Association, Federal Eastern District Court of New York, CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and CCPIT Mediation Center (Beijing). He also serves on the Law School Facilitation Panel of the Association of American Law Schools.

Professor Abramson is a member of several local and national dispute resolution organizations, including the ADR Committee of the NYS Bar Association (former chair), ACR (Association for Conflict Resolution), and the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution.

Professor Abramson has lectured widely and conducted numerous training programs on domestic and cross-cultural negotiations and mediations, domestic and international arbitration, public policy negotiations, and representing clients in mediations. He has lectured and conducted training programs throughout the United States as well as in China, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, India, Russia, Switzerland and Turkey.

Professor Abramson’s academic degrees are in business administration (BBA, University of Michigan), public administration (MPA, Harvard University), and law (JD, Syracuse University and LL.M., Harvard University.)

Publications (selected links to books and articles)

Professor Abramson’s publications include (partial list):

WORKS-IN-PROGRESS
Mediating Chinese - U.S. Commercial Disputes: A Comparative Study of Mediation Practices and Opportunities for Harmonization," co-author with dispute resolution expert in China (to be published in 2008).

Mediating Disputes in U.S. and Islamic Cultures: Understanding and Accommodating Cultural Differences, co-author.

BOOKS
Mediation Representation-Advocating as a Problem-Solver in Any Country or Culture (2nd edition, NITA, 2010).

International Conflict Resolution-Consensual ADR Processes, co-author (West Group, 2005).

Mediation Representation – Advocating In A Problem-Solving Process (NITA, 2004) (Recipient of 2004 Book Award of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution).

ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS
Outward Bound to Other Cultures: Seven Guidelines for U.S. Dispute Resolution Trainers 9 Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal 437 (2009)

Rethinking Negotiation Teaching (Editors-James Coben, Giuseppe DePalo, and Christopher Honeyman, Hamline University, to be published Sp. 2009)

Crossing Borders into New Ethical Territory: Ethical Challenges When Mediating Cross-Culturally 49 S.Tex. L.R. 921 (2008)(ADR Ethics Symposium Issue).

Forward in Manon Schonewille, Tookit: Mediation Advocacy (2007) (book published in the Netherlands in Dutch).

The Culturally Suitable Mediator in Schneider and Honeyman, NEGOTIATOR’S FIELDBOOK (ABA, 2006) and expanded version entitled Selecting Mediators and Representing Clients in Cross-Cultural Disputes, 7 Cardozo J. of Confl. Resol. 253 (2006).

Final Offer Arbitration in Cooley, CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVER’S HANDBOOK FOR NEGOTIATORS AND MEDIATORS (ABA, December, 2005).

Problem-Solving Advocacy in Mediations: A Model of Client Representation, 10 Harv. Neg. L.R. 103 (Sp. 2005) and republished in THE AFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL, Marjorie Silver (2007).

Mining Mediation Rules for Representation Opportunities and Obstacles, 1 J. of Intl. Dis. Res. 40 (Germany, 2004) and 15 Am. Rev. of Intl. Arb. 103 (Sp. 2005).

Problem-Solving Advocacy in Mediations, DISPUTE RESOLUTION JOURNAL 56 (AAA, Aug. – Oct. 2004).

International Dispute Resolution in Rau, Sherman, and Peppet, PROCESSES OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION (3th edition, law school textbook, 2002).

International Mediation Basics and Representing Clients in International Mediations in PRACTITIONER’S GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION AND MEDIATION (Editors-Chernick, Kolkey, Rhoades, 2002).

The Alternative Dispute Resolution Movement: Twenty Years Later, THE TOURO LAWYER (Alumni magazine) 12 (Sp. 2001).

Protocols for International Arbitrators Who Dare to Settle Cases, 10 Am. Rev. of Intl. Arb. 1 (1999).

Guidelines for Working with Interpreters in Mediations (1999, updated 2008).

COMPARING SETTLEMENT CONFERENCES AND MEDIATIONS, co-author (Videotape and Instructors Manual, NYS Bar Association, 1999).

Time to Try Mediation of International Commercial Disputes, 4 ILSA J. of Intl. & Comp.L 323 (1998).

Transnational Litigation: International Arbitration and Alternatives, Opportunities and Pitfalls, 10 International Law Practicum 74, 84 (International Law and Practice Section, NYS Bar Association, 1997) (transcript of simulated negotiation of ADR Clause)