Howard A. Herman, Adjunct Professor

Adjunct Professor Howard A. Herman has worked as a mediator and as a developer of court-annexed ADR programs since 1985. He currently serves as Director of ADR Programs for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, where he has worked since 1997. He previously served as Director of ADR Programs for Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez, California, and as co-director of what was then known as the Office of Settlement Conference Attorneys of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (now known as the Ninth Circuit's Mediation Program).

In his work at the district court, Professor Herman both mediates cases and has primary responsibility for training and supervising the hundreds of lawyers who serve as volunteer neutrals in the court's ADR programs. This work includes serving as the lead trainer for the court's basic mediation trainings, as well as the development of continuing education programs for mediators, neutral evaluators, and arbitrators. He also devotes significant time and energy to assisting with ongoing program design and development. In 2002, he was a co-recipient of the first Robert F. Peckham Award for Excellence in Alternative Dispute Resolution presented by the Ninth Circuit.

Professor Herman also has substantial experience as an ADR teacher. Since 1997, he has taught negotiation and mediation at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. In 2002, he began teaching in the school's small claims court mediation clinic. In addition to the basic and continuing education courses he leads at the district court, Professor Herman has developed numerous ADR training programs, including basic and advanced mediation courses for the U.S. District Court in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and a course on effective representation in mediation for the Northern District of California's Federal Practice Program. He has served on the faculty of the California Center for Judicial Education's Continuing Judicial Studies Program and the Federal Judicial Center's Mediation Training for Magistrate Judges. He has taught courses for judges and lawyers in India, Jordan, Palau, and Thailand as part of those countries' ongoing civil law reform efforts. Professor Herman also has a relationship with Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany, where he periodically teaches an advanced mediation seminar.

Professor Herman practiced as a civil litigator with the firms of Graham & James and Kindel & Anderson in San Francisco. He received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and his A.B. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Professor Herman has served on the California Judicial Council's working group for the development of ethical standards for court-connected mediators, the ADR Committee of the California State Bar, and the California Trial Court Budget Commission's Subcommittee on ADR. He is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution, the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association, and other professional dispute resolution organizations. He has particular interests in the psychological dynamics of negotiation and in ADR ethics.