The change experienced today in all areas of society touches nearly every aspect of our lives from the way we communicate to the way we are entertained, from how business is transacted to the way international borders are becoming irrelevant. It is then, no surprise that education, and in particular legal education, would be equally affected by this change - and even more importantly, that legal educators should look at ways to address how the change should affect legal education in the next half century. The Task Force, named by Dean Rennard Strickland, also includes the president of the Law School Alumni Association, the president of the Student Bar Association, members of the judiciary, the faculty and the public, with the dean and the university president as ex-officio members. Prominent in the areas being investigated by the Task Force is the shift in the legal profession from a focus on litigation as the primary means of resolving disputes to the use of negotiation and mediation, with lawyers serving as facilitators and problem solvers.
Mediation is an effort to resolve problems without destroying relationships.
While the move toward mediation would not scrap the traditional law curriculum, it would mean a shifting toward resolution by agreement rather than by adversity. Agreeing that this approach should be explored is Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Ellen Rosenblum, Class of '75, also a member of the Task Force. This should also be true for issues of ethics and professionalism. It makes more sense in context than on its own somewhere. Negotiations have just become more formalized and, to some extent, taken out of the hands of the lawyers by trained mediators, many of whom are lawyers , but many are not.