Conflict is at the center of what lawyers do. Whether in the courtroom, boardroom, bargaining table or over the “kitchen sink” with your roommate, Mizzou Law will provide you with the tools to understand, manage and resolve conflict.

The Dispute Resolution Curriculum at Mizzou Law is designed to add value to your JD program by providing students with a framework to understand and better manage conflict using a variety of dispute resolution processes from negotiation and mediation to arbitration and litigation.

Adding Value to your Legal Education

• Our Lawyering course, which students take on their very first semester of law school, introduces students to the study of conflict, and the role of lawyers in managing and resolving conflict.
• In their second and third years, the CSDR offers a rich portfolio of courses on the law and theory of dispute resolution (e.g., Arbitration, Conflict & Conflict Management, Cross-Cultural Dispute Resolution, Mediation, and Negotiation), as well as several “hands-on” courses in which students get to hone their dispute resolution skills (e.g., Client Interviewing, Mediation Clinic, Pre-trial Litigation and Trial Practice). Courses can be taken individually or as part of our Dispute Resolution Certificate.
• In addition to the extensive set of curricular offerings, the CSDR provides students a number of extra-curricular, dispute resolution activities. Starting as early as their first semester of law school, and through our student-lead Board of Advocates program, students are eligible to participate in a variety of dispute resolution advocacy skill competitions. Second and third-year students also are eligible to a or serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Dispute Resolution.
• Students interested in international opportunities in dispute resolution can participate in our South Africa Study Abroad Program. The program allows students to take 6 hours of credit (two of which are on comparative dispute resolution) at the University of Western Cape, in Cape Town South Africa.
• Another exciting opportunity involves our Mediation course. Students who complete the course (which is one of the courses counting towards the JD Dispute Resolution Certificate) meet the training requirements to apply to become a “Rule 17” mediator under Missouri Supreme Court Rules.  Rule 17 qualified mediators can be placed on the list of mediators set up by a circuit court or individual judge who refer cases to mediation pursuant to Missouri Supreme Court Rule 17.04.
• The CSDR strives to add value to your professional development throughout your career. Students interested in further developing their dispute resolution credentials might be interested in our LLM program in Dispute Resolution. The LLM program provides practitioners and scholars with a deeper understanding of theoretical, policy, design and ethical issues in dispute resolution.
•  Dispute resolution skills have become integral parts of the practice of law in areas such as Employment & Labor Law, Education Law, Environmental Law, Family Law, Intellectual Property, Real Estate Law and others. In collaboration with the Career Development office, the CSDR seeks to connect students with career opportunities in these and other areas of the law, where the skills acquired through our coursework might be particularly useful.