Online Dispute Resolution Innovation Clinic
The Online Dispute Resolution Innovaction Clinic will be a brand new full-year, full-time clinic offered for 10 credits (5 credits/semester). Students will receive separate letter grades at the end of the year for the clinic work and seminar. The clinic will be open to both day and evening students, including HJD students, in their last two (2) years of law school and Accelerated JD students in their last year. Students in the ODR Innovation Clinic will work together to design and implement a cutting-edge Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) process for simple divorces in Massachusetts in collaboration with the American Arbitration Association (AAA). In Massachusetts, a high percentage of litigants who seek divorces cannot afford lawyers. Court processes in this area of law are complex, costly, and often difficult to navigate. Many divorce cases can be resolved more efficiently, amicably, and affordably with the help of alternate dispute resolution (ADR) techniques, yet these remain out of reach for those of modest means. The ODR Innovation Clinic seeks to work collaboratively with stakeholders in the court system, the Bar, and in legal services to help address this unmet need.
Students will delve into the substantive law and procedure of simple divorce cases in Massachusetts, learn best practices and work with emerging technologies in ADR and ODR, and also learn some of the basics of legal tech and design thinking from our Legal Innovation and Technology (LIT) Lab. Students will also have the benefit of leveraging expertise and technology from Suffolk’s partners at AAA and ODR.com, who are international leaders in ADR.
Building on work started by students this past year, students in the ODR Innovation Clinic will finalize and beta-test a blueprint, and project strategy for this cutting-edge application of ODR and legal technology to family law litigation. Students will then help roll out this new technology to Massachusetts litigants and assist them through the process of resolving their disputes amicably. Students will work both collaboratively with legal experts from a variety of fields and in teams.
In addition to the project and case work of the clinic, there will be a weekly 2-hour seminar. The seminar will cover the substantive law of family law and ODR, legal practice skills, best practices in dispute resolution, familiarity and facility with the relevant technology, and the ethical issues related to the work. Students will have the support of clinical faculty but are expected to serve as leaders in their projects and cases and take initiative and responsibility for their work.
Students enrolling in the ODR Innovation Clinic should be aware that the Clinic is brand new, and part of an ambitious collaboration between Suffolk Law School and the AAA. By virtue of the innovative nature of the Clinic, the exact contours of the work will take shape after the clinical application process and evolve over the course of the year based on community needs, court response, and the functionality of the technology. Nevertheless, students enrolled in the Clinic should expect to: develop fundamental lawyering skills, particularly in the areas of dispute resolution and family law; hone their design thinking and problem-solving skills; learn team work and collaboration skills, closely examine legal ethics in the context of this unique practice; and explore their professional identities. We anticipate students will also gain skills in fundamental areas such as client interviewing and counseling, cross cultural competency, legal problem solving, drafting, legal research, and prioritization of legal needs.
The ODR Innovation Clinic is appropriate for students interested in a range of practice areas, but it may be of particular interest to students who wish to pursue careers involving dispute resolution, innovation and legal technology, and family law.
Students enrolled in the clinic are required to thoroughly prepare for and attend the weekly seminar, attend weekly supervision meetings, write journal entries critically reflecting on their experiences in the clinic and seminar, and to spend at least 13 hours per week engaged in clinic work (in addition to the time required for the seminar, journal entries, and supervision). Preference will be given to students entering their last year of law school and those who have taken courses in alternate dispute resolution (although those courses are not required). Students must have completed or be currently enrolled in Professional Responsibility. Spanish language skills are also valued. If you have any questions, please contact Associate Dean Sarah Boonin [email protected].