Dispute Resolution and Litigation

Shaping tomorrow’s problem solvers and conflict resolvers.

Lawyers as advocates and problem solvers

At UF Law, we have a broad and deep commitment to dispute resolution and trial advocacy. Through our rigorous, multidisciplinary curriculum, we expand on the traditional skills to include the most innovative and creative processes. Our students approach their clients’ problems efficiently, skillfully, and appropriately.

Visionary, Collaborative, Innovative Faculty
Hands-on Problem-Solving
A Winning Tradition
Hear it from Our Students
Selected Scholarship

Dispute Resolution And Litigation Faculty

Our faculty is collaborative and innovative. Through our teaching, research, service, and scholarship we strive to remain consistently and uncompromisingly at the forefront.

Trial Tactics and Advocacy Faculty

At UF Law, students develop the knowledge and skills needed to be practice-ready trial lawyers, including evidence analysis, trial strategy, and effective courtroom communication. Trial studies are reinforced through extensive hands-on experience in realistic trial simulations. Experienced lawyers and judges guide students through the trial process with an understanding that well-conducted trials are critical to the search for justice in our society. Students finish their trial courses equipped with the understanding and skills necessary to begin a career in the courtroom.

Mary Adkins

William Hamilton

Jennifer Zedalis

Arbitration, Mediation and Negotiation Faculty

UF Law recognizes the increasing importance of dispute resolution skills. While we teach our students many stand-alone courses in topics such as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration, our faculty also integrates these essential skills throughout our foundational and advanced doctrinal courses.

Jonathan Cohen

Robin Davis

Joan Stearns Johnsen

Foundational Skills Faculty

In foundational skills courses, students are taught how to apply legal principles and legal analysis as practitioners do. UF students receive individualized instruction throughout the semester as they elevate their critical thinking and writing skills, explore and analyze the range of clients’ needs, and produce professional caliber litigation and transactional documents.

Deborah Cupples

Ben Fernandez

Leslie Knight

Margaret Temple-Smith

Experiential Learning Faculty

UF Law’s experiential learning faculty teach and supervise students who are working in in-house clinics and field placements as Certified Legal Interns or Externs. Certified Legal Interns represent clients in court and in mediation and provide much-needed legal assistance to an underserved population. Externship students work in a wide variety of law practice settings, including courts, nonprofit organizations, corporations, administrative agencies, and law firms. In addition, during their third year, UF students may participate in Semester in Practice where they can work full time and jumpstart their careers. Our clinical and field placement faculty provide individualized instruction and supervision to help transform our students into professionals.

Teresa Drake

Jeff Grater

Silvia Menendez

Hands-on Problem-Solving

At UF Law we recognize the important interplay of theory and practice. We provide a wide array of practice opportunities that expose students to the nuances of all dispute resolution modalities and that allow students to explore, test, develop, and expand their skills to become creative practitioners and client advocates. We bring real world experience to our students. The below list is just a sampling of the many opportunities available to UF Law students.

International Global Pound Conference on Commercial Dispute Resolution, Miami, Florida

Students in suits in front of a historic building

Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, Vienna Austria

Students in Vienna

International Center for Conflict Prevention and Resolution Commercial Mediation Competition, Sao Paulo, Brazil

A Winning Tradition

Students Win Top Petitioner and Best Oral Advocate at National Latino Moot Court Competition

The UF Law Latino Law Student Association took home high honors from the 2017 National Latina/o Law Student Association Moot Court Competition and Conference held in Atlanta earlier this fall. During the conference two UF Law students were also elected to NLLSA’s executive board. UF Law students Daniel Batista (JD 18) and co-counsel Harold Lemoine […]

UF Law’s Vis Moot Team Excels in Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition in Vienna

A first-place team finish and a Second Best Oralist award to Paul Punzone at The Florida Bar Pre-Moot in Miami in February helped secure UF Law a spot in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Competition in Vienna, Austria, last week. This year’s team advanced to the round of 64 out of more than 320 schools. UF Law students […]

Moot Court Wins National Bankruptcy Competition

The Florida Moot Court Team won the 25th Annual Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition, held in New York City March 4-6. UF Law’s Mercy Guillot (3L) and Joyce Delgado (3L) aided by coach Lissett Martinez (3L) competed against 40 teams, emerging the champion in the nationwide competition. The team also won “second best brief overall.” […]

UF Trial Team Wins National Criminal Justice Advocacy Competition

The University of Florida Trial Team won the 27th American Bar Association National Criminal Justice Advocacy Competition held March 16-18 in Chicago. UF Law students Neal Cordero (JD 17), Danielle Kaboudi (JD 17), Tristan Montaque (JD 17) and Will Sepulveda (JD 17) competed against 20 law schools from across the country to take home top […]

New UF Transactional Law Team Takes High Honors in Competition

A new extracurricular competitive team at UF Law, the University of Florida Transactional Law Team, was among 84 that competed in seven regional LawMeets competitions hosted around the country on Feb. 27. UF’s team, composed of Jake Felman (JD 17), Hayley Salem (JD 17) and Sam Seaman (JD 17), finished second in the regional competition […]

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Hear it from our students

Photo of Montaque

“By far the most memorable and valuable experience at UF Law was the Dispute Resolution Team and the Trial Team where we won two national championships. What most people do not realize is that law school teaches you how to think like a lawyer. These co-curricular activities afforded me the opportunity to gain real-life experience regarding actual, practical lawyering skills. They taught me how to actually BE a lawyer.”

Tristan G. Montaque (JD 16)

Photo of Kaboudi

“UF Law provides incomparable professors and a highly competitive student body, ensuring that every student has the opportunity to hone their skills and enter the legal profession ready to practice.”

Danielle Kaboudi (JD 16)

Photo of Siragusa

“I was a JD/MBA at UF and competed in many international competitions in both the business school and the law school. A highlight was the international mediation competition in Brazil which allowed me to develop my skills and build my professional network. The wide array of practical opportunities differentiates UF.”

Jonathan Siragusa (JD 16)

Selected Scholarship

Jonathan Cohen

A Genesis of Conflict: The Zero-Sum Mindset, 17 Cardozo J. Conflict Resol. 427 (2016).

Open-Minded Listening, 5 Charlotte L. Rev. 139 (2014).

Conflicts as Inner Trials: Transitions for Clients, Ideas for Lawyers, 13 Cardozo J. Conflict Resol. 393 (2012).

Fostering Race-Related Dialogue: Lessons from a Small Seminar, 22 U. Fla. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 407 (2011).
The Path between Sebastian’s Hospitals: Fostering Reconciliation after a Tragedy, 17 Barry L. Rev. 89 (2011).

The Negotiation Within: Outer Ideas on Inner Dialogues, Harv. Negot. L. Rev. Online (March 18, 2010).

Joan Stearns Johnsen

Alternative “Deal” Resolution: The Facilitated Negotiation of Transactions, 30 Windsor Rev. Legal & Soc. Issues 193 (2011)

Leonard Riskin (Professor Emeritus)

Two (or More) Concepts of Mindfulness in Law and Conflict Resolution, in The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Mindfulness (Amanda Ie, et al. eds., 2014).

Managing Inner and Outer Conflict: Selves, Subpersonalities, and Internal Family Systems, 18 Harv. Negot. L. Rev. 1 (2013).

Awareness and the Legal Profession: An Introduction to the Mindful Lawyer Symposium, 61 J. Legal Educ. 634 (2012).

Annual Saltman Lecture: Further beyond Reason: Emotions, the Core Concerns, and Mindfulness in Negotiation, 10 Nev. L.J. 289 (2010).

What’s It All About: Finding the Appropriate Problem Definition in Mediation, 15 Disp. Resol. Mag. 19 (2009) (with Nancy A. Welsh).

Awareness and Ethics in Dispute Resolution and Law: Why Mindfulness Tends to Foster Ethical Behavior, 50 S. Tex. L. Rev. 493 (2009).

Is That All There Is: The Problem in Court-Oriented Mediation, 15 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 863 (2008) (with Nancy A Welsh).

LITIGATION AND ADVOCACY

Jennifer Zedalis

Lost in Case: 10 Ways to Bring Justice Into Closing Argument, 22 ABA Trial Evidence Committee Newsl. 2 (2014).

Revisiting the Decision of Death in Hurst v. Florida, 44 J. Am. Acad. Psychiatry & Law 483 (2016).

E-DISCOVERY

William Hamilton

A Student Electronic discovery Primer: An Essential Companion for Civil Procedure Courses (2016) (with Jennifer Smith).

LexisNexis Practice Guide Florida E-Discovery and Evidence (2011) (with Ralph Artigliere).

Electronic Evidence, in Evidence in Florida (10^th ed. 2014) (with Ralph Artigliere).

TAR for the Small and Medium Case, in Perspectives on Predictive Coding and Other Advanced Search Methods for the Legal Practitioner (Jason R. Baron et al. eds., 2016).

PEDAGOGY

Don Peters

Delivering Effective Education in In-House Clinics, in Building on Best Practices: Transforming Legal Education in a Changing World (Deborah Maranville, et al. eds., 2015) (with Lisa Bliss).

Silvia Menendez
Trusts and Estates Simulations (2015) (with Danaya C. Wright).