ADR Hall of Fame Award

The nomination period for 2024 is currently closed.

Congratulations to the 2024 Award Recipient

The Litigation Section is proud to announce the recipient of the 2024 ADR Hall of Fame Award and the ADR Service Award. The Award will be presented annually by the Litigation Section of the California Lawyers Association (“CLA”) for distinguished service in the promotion or development of alternative dispute resolution or for significant contributions or impact in the field of alternative dispute resolution. The ADR Committee of the Litigation Section shall make the final determination of the number of awardees each year, each recipient of the Award, and the annual presentation of the Award.

2024 ADR Hall of Fame:  Thomas J. Stipanowich

THOMAS J. STIPANOWICH, holder of theWilliam Webster Chair in Dispute Resolution and Professor of Law at Pepperdine, is an internationally known scholar, thought leader, and dispute resolution professional. He helped lead Pepperdine’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution (as Academic Director and then Dean) from 2006 to 2020, during which it was top-ranked a dozen times by  academic peers in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. From 2001 to 2006, he was President & CEO of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR), the New York-based nonprofit on the cutting edge of “R&D” for the field. Stipanowich’s influential body of scholarship includes co-authorship of Resolving Disputes: Theory, Practice and Law and the landmark treatise Federal Arbitration Law: Agreements, Awards & Remedies under the Federal Arbitration Act (named Best New Legal Book by the Association of American Publishers.  He has played many roles in the evolution of the field, including:

• Director of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation-supported Commission on the Future of Arbitration, and Editor of Commercial Arbitration at Its Best;
• Co-founder of the College of Commercial Arbitrators; Editor-in-Chief of the College’s Protocols for Expeditious, Cost-Effective Arbitration;
• Academic Reporter and primary drafter of the influential Consumer Due Process Protocols for arbitration and mediation of consumer disputes;
• Public Member and Chair of the Securities Industry Council on Arbitration (SICA);
• Co-leadership of the International Task Force on Mixed Mode Dispute Resolution;
• Developer of ground-breaking surveys of practices and perspectives among arbitrators, mediators, and counsel;
• Proponent of commercial mediation in the EU, Latin America, and Asia.
• Academic advisor for the Uniform Mediation Act and the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act;
• Chair of the ABA Committee that revised the ABA/AAA Code of Ethics for Arbitrators in Commercial Disputes.

Stipanowich received the D’Alemberte-Raven Award from the ABA Dispute Resolution Section and CPR’s James F. Henry Award. He is an honorary Distinguished Professor of Law of New Law University Delhi, India, and among twenty inaugural “Affiliated Global Faculty” of Peking University School of Law (Baida). His work has received CPR awards for practical achievement, outstanding book on dispute resolution, and outstanding professional article (twice). He was a Visiting Scholar at Heidelberg University’s Institute of Private Law and a Hagler Distinguished Fellow at Texas A&M University’s Institute for Advanced Studies. In 2023, he received the Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence from Pepperdine University. Stipanowich is an experienced dispute resolution professional with wide-ranging experience as a commercial arbitrator, mediator, special master, referee, process designer, and conflict coach (currently affiliated with JAMS). His broad teaching repertoire includes courses in negotiation; contracts and commercial law; arbitration practice and advocacy; international arbitration and dispute resolution; ethical and practical issues in conflict management; and lessons on managing conflict from the life and career of Abraham Lincoln.

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