CNDR Hosts International JAMS Fellows for a Court ADR Training

The Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (CNDR) hosted a three-part training for this year’s 2020 JAMS Weinstein Fellows. Participants from all over the world – judges, lawyers, and ADR professionals – came to UC Law SF to learn about court ADR programs.

An interactive class, taught by CNDR Director and Professor Sheila Purcell, Adjunct Professor Howard Herman, and mediator Claudia Bernard, the series focused on various aspects of designing and implementing a court dispute resolution system. Using their experience running successful ADR programs at San Mateo County, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and the Ninth Circuit, the instructors covered the role of values and how they shape outcomes, administrative and logistical considerations, and cultural considerations in how one’s country approaches conflict. 

The Weinstein JAMS International Fellowship Program, provides opportunities for qualified individuals from outside the United States to study dispute resolution processes and practices in the U.S. to assist them in their efforts to advance the resolution of disputes in their home countries. The Fellowship Program is designed to be flexible and open to innovation, and applicants are encouraged to be creative in pursuing activities in the U.S. that will serve to expand the use of ADR in their home countries.

2020’s Fellows and Court ADR Series Attendees:

Natalia Alenkina (Kyrgyzstan) – Ms. Alenkina is a senior lawyer with experience representing the interests of the Kyrgyz government in international arbitration regarding commercial and investment disputes. She further serves as the deputy chairman of the scholarly advisory board at the International Court of Arbitration and is an associate professor at the American University of Central Asia. Upon completion of her Fellowship in the U.S., she hopes to contribute to systemic changes in arbitration processes by creating a favorable legal environment for the development of international commercial arbitration in Kyrgyzstan.

Victor Baba Emmanuel Aligo (South Sudan/Kenya) – Mr. Aligo is a lawyer and accredited mediator. Originally from South Sudan, he resides in Kenya as a refugee, where in addition to his legal and mediation practice, he leads the Men’s Ministry at the Reconciliation Centre in Nairobi. Mr. Aligo is a certified speaker, trainer, teacher and coach. As part of his Fellowship, he intends to expand his knowledge and understanding of ADR for the benefit of people in the South Sudan and sub-Saharan Africa through ADR advocacy in schools, communities and faith-based institutions throughout the region.

Gidey Belay Assefa (Ethiopia) – Mr. Assefa is a senior associate attorney at the Addis Law Group LLP and Zee Law Office. He has served as a lecturer at Addis Ababa University and Aksum University, and received his LL.M. in commercial law from Hawassa University. While acting as director of the Aksum University legal aid center, he worked to resolve domestic cases through mediation in and out of court. During his Fellowship, he seeks to equip himself with the necessary dispute resolution knowledge and skills to establish a dispute resolution training center in Ethiopia.

Hicham Kantar (Lebanon) – Mr. Kantar has served as a judge in Beirut for over 15 years and is currently a prosecutor in the financial prosecution office of Lebanon. He recently completed a second LL.M. at Columbia Law School, where, in recognition of his superior academic achievement, he was named a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar. As part of his Fellowship, he intends to develop a decentralized mediation and restorative justice program for rural areas throughout Lebanon, where courts are understaffed and have considerable case backlogs but the tradition of resolving disputes through dialogue processes still exists.

Anh Tuan Nguyen (Vietnam) – Mr. Nguyen is the founder and director of the Vietnam Commercial Effective Mediation Center (VEMC). He is also managing partner at ANT Lawyers, which has offices in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. During his Fellowship, he hopes to obtain theoretical and practical knowledge of ADR, including innovations in online dispute resolution, to assist in ensuring that ADR legislation meets international standards in Vietnam given the country’s rapidly developing economy.

Akira Ninomiya Júnior (Brazil) – Mr. Ninomiya Júnior is a lawyer, mediator and founder of RePacificar, an organization dedicated to the transformation of conflict in the state of Goiás and throughout Brazil. He further serves as a state government crisis and conflict resolution consultant. Upon completion of his Fellowship, he intends to continue his work to provide dispute resolution training in schools and within communities to prepare a new generation of conflict resolvers to expand the use of ADR in Brazil. Additionally, he is working to create an online dispute resolution initiative for the commercial and industrial sectors in Goiás in response to business disruption conflicts caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Nominchimeg Odsuren (Mongolia) – Ms. Odsuren is the managing partner at Nomin & Advocates LLP and an adjunct lecturer at the National University of Mongolia School of Law. She further serves as an arbitrator at the Mongolian International Arbitration Center (MIAC). As part of her Fellowship, she plans to learn mediation theory and practice in application to the resolution of disputes and how private dispute resolution centers operate. In addition, she plans to develop the first negotiation training course for law students in Mongolia.

Ljubomir Petruljeskov (Serbia) – Mr. Petruljeskov is the program lead of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), which is headquartered in Rome, where he works to stimulate the creation of community practice and build institutional capacity by providing in-house training on mediation for the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region (EECA). He hopes to create a regional mediation platform while transferring the knowledge and expertise gained during his Fellowship to different countries and IDLO projects.

Khadeeja Shabeen (Republic of Maldives) – Ms. Shabeen is the deputy attorney general for the Republic of Maldives, where she oversees, in particular, the legal affairs division and ADR section of the Office of the Attorney General. While participating in the Fellowship Program, she hopes to gain a deeper understanding of arbitration and mediation to promote the advancement of ADR in Maldives, enabling her to work as counsel and arbitrator at arbitrations instituted at the recently established Maldives International Arbitration Center and to contribute to the introduction of mediation legislation following Maldives’ signing of the Singapore Convention.

Monika Włodarczyk (Poland) – Ms. Włodarczyk is a civil judge at the district court in Chrzanów with particular interest in civil litigation, mediation and conflict management. She is also the current president and founder of the Polish section of GEMME (European Association of Judges for Mediation). During her Fellowship, she intends to study best practices in court-connected ADR programs in the U.S. to implement and expand court-connected mediation pilot projects and promote the use of mediation through training for the judiciary in Poland.

Lilit Yeremyan (Armenia) – Ms. Yeremyan is assistant to the President of the Republic of Armenia for legal affairs and presidential initiatives as well as a senior lecturer in public international law at Russian-Armenian University. She further serves as a strategic researcher on an ad hoc basis at Davit & Partners. While participating in the Fellowship program, she hopes to gain new knowledge and a deeper understanding of dispute resolution processes and practices in the U.S., including the latest innovations in ADR, to provide a road map for the promotion of ADR in Armenia.

Miglė Žukauskaitė-Tatorė (Lithuania) – Ms. Žukauskaitė-Tatorė is a lawyer, mediator and mediation trainer. She recently submitted her doctoral dissertation on the relationship between mandatory mediation and access to justice at Vilnius University. She previously served as a scientific expert to the working group on mediation at the Council of Europe European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) and is a vice-president of education, international with the International Academy of Dispute Resolution (INADR). As part of her Fellowship, she hopes to further develop her skills as a mediator, mediation trainer and educator.