Michael Moffitt
Philip H. Knight Chair, Professor
Biography
Michael Moffitt has been a member of the Oregon Law faculty since 2001. He served as Dean of the Law School from 2011 through 2017. Professor Moffitt has published more than two dozen scholarly articles on mediation, negotiation, and civil procedure. He co-edited The Handbook of Dispute Resolution, an award-winning compilation of 31 original chapters by leading scholars and practitioners in the field. He also co-authored the innovative, student-focused book, Dispute Resolution: Examples & Explanations. His most recent article, Settlement Malpractice, published in the University of Chicago Law Review, won the prize for best article of the year by both the Association of American Law Schools Section on Professional Responsibility and the AALS Section on Dispute Resolution. He also received the Dispute Resolution Advancement Award from the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution at St. John’s University.
Professor Moffitt has won teaching awards from the law school and from the University of Oregon. Before coming to Oregon Law, he served as the clinical supervisor for the mediation program at Harvard Law School and taught negotiation at Harvard and Ohio State. Following a federal judicial clerkship, he spent several years with Conflict Management Group, consulting on negotiation and dispute resolution projects in about twenty countries around the world. He recently served as the Roger D. Fisher Visiting Professor in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Harvard Law School, where he led the Negotiation Workshops for two years. He is a devoted but mediocre snowboarder, an aggressive tennis player, and a slow-but-persistent hiker.
Areas of Expertise
Publications:
Full Length Law Review Articles
No News (read: successful lawsuits against mediators) is Good News?, 12 Texas A&M L. Rev. 709 (2025).
Truth. Regardless of Reconciliation? 24 Nevada Law Journal 1024 (2024)
Settlement Malpractice, 86 University of Chicago Law Review 1825 (2019)
Islands, Vitamins, Salt, Germs: Four Visions of the Future of ADR in Law Schools, 25 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution 25 (2010).
Three Things to Be Against ('Settlement' Not Included), 78 Fordham Law Review 1203 (2009).
The Four Ways to Assure Mediator Quality (and why none of them work), 24 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution 191 (2009).
Customized Litigation: The Case for Making Civil Procedure Negotiable, 75 George Washington Law Review 461 (2007).
Pleadings in the Age of Settlement, 80 Indiana Law Journal 727 (2005).
Schmediation and the Dimensions of Definition, 10 Harvard Negotiation Law Review 69 (2005).
Lights, Camera, Begin Final Exam: Testing What We Teach in Negotiation Courses, 54 Journal of Legal Education 91 (2004).
Suing Mediators, 83 Boston University Law Review 147 (2003).
Ten Ways to Get Sued: A Guide for Mediators, 8 Harvard Negotiation Law Review 81 (2003).
Will This Case Settle? An Exploration of Mediators' Predictions, 16 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution 39 (2000).
Remodeling the Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators, 2 Harvard Negotiation Law Review 87 (1997), co-authored with Jamie Henikoff.
Casting Light on the Black Box of Mediation: Should Mediators Make Their Conduct More Transparent?, 13 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution 1 (1997).
Shorter Law Review Articles and Book Chapters
Review of Morrill & Musheno: Navigating Conflict: How Youth Handle Trouble in a High-Poverty School, 36 Negotiation Journal 73 (2020).
Commentary: The Overconfident Disputant in Mediation Ethics: Cases and Commentaries (Ellen Waldman, ed.) (Jossey-Bass 2011).
Iqbal and Settlement, 114 Penn St. L. Rev. Penn Statim 51 (2010).
Before the Big Bang: The Making of an ADR Pioneer, 22 Negotiation Journal 437 (2006).
Mediator Accountability: Ethical and Legal Standards of the Profession, American Journal of Trial Advocacy 47 (2005).
Mediation 'Transparency' Helps Parties See Where They're Going in Mediation: Approaches and Insights Russ Bleemer, ed. (CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution 2005).
Learning to Learn to Negotiate: An Action Science Perspective, (with Scott R. Peppet), in The Negotiator's Fieldbook, (C. Honeyman and A. Schneider, eds.) (2006).
Contingent Agreements: Agreeing to Disagree about the Future, 87 Marquette Law Review 690 (2004). Updated and reprinted in The Negotiator's Fieldbook, (C. Honeyman and A. Schneider, eds.) (2006).
The Law of Bargaining, 87 Marquette Law Review 838 (2004), co-authored with Russell Korobkin & Nancy Welsh. Updated and reprinted in The Negotiator's Fieldbook, (C. Honeyman and A. Schneider, eds.) (2006).
Action Science and Negotiation, 87 Marquette Law Review 648 (2004), co-authored with Scott Peppet.
Loyalty, Confidentiality and Attorney-Mediators: Professional Responsibility in Cross-Profession Practice, 1 Harvard Negotiation Law Review 203 (1996).
Books
DISPUTE RESOLUTION: BEYOND THE ADVERSARIAL MODEL 3D ED., (Aspen 2018), co-authored with Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Lela Love and Andrea Schneider.
Dispute Resolution: Examples & Explanations co-authored with Andrea Kupfer Schneider (Aspen 2008) (2d ed. Aspen 2011) (3d ed. Aspen 2014).
The Handbook of Dispute Resolution, edited with Robert C. Bordone (Jossey-Bass 2005).
Other Publications
Which is Better, Food or Water? The Rule of Law or ADR?, Dispute Resolution Magazine 8 (2010).
Create Value out of Conflict, 9 Negotiation 1 (Harvard Business School Publishing, June 2006).
The Wrong Model, Again: Why the Devil is Not in the Details of the New Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators, Dispute Resolution Magazine (Spring 2006).
Promises, Promises: Mediators and Their Contracts, in Alternatives: CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution (January 2004).
What Me Liable? A Checkup for Mediators, Dispute Resolution Magazine 25 (Summer 2003).
An Introduction to Transparent Mediation, in Alternatives: CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution (June 1998).
Frank Sander: Mentor to the Field of Dispute Resolution, Dispute Resolution Magazine 14 (Fall 2012), co-authored with David Hoffman.
Arthur Miller Scared the Hell Out of Me, 90 Oregon Law Review 945 (2012).
Appearances
Selected Public Presentations
Professor Moffitt has given more than fifty public and scholarly presentations. A partial list of the audiences includes: the ABA Section on Dispute Resolution, Quinnipiac – Yale ADR Speaker Series, New England Association for Conflict Resolution, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, Harvard Mediation Program, TechStars Chicago, Novancia Business School, Harvard Law School, National Symposium on Dispute Resolution in Special Education, Oregon Trial Lawyers Association, International Ombudsman Association, Marquette University Law School, University of Nevada Las Vegas Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution, Tennessee Supreme Court ADR Commission, American Association of Law Libraries, Law School Admissions Council, International Academy of Mediators, Law and Society Association Conference, American College of Civil Trial Mediators and International Academy of Mediators Annual Meeting, Wisconsin Association of Mediators, American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting, Oregon State Bar Section on Dispute Resolution, Oregon Mediation Association Annual Meeting, Northern Kentucky University Labor-Management Conference, The Michigan Conference on Dispute Resolution, Boston Bar Association Section on Litigation, The CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution Annual Conference.
Honors and Awards
Herman Award for Specialized Pedagogy. 2023. Awarded by the University of Oregon to recognize outstanding achievement and expertise in a particular area of teaching.