The Center was founded in 1981 as the Center for Mediation in Law, a non-profit educational institute. Since its founding, the Center has worked to develop its unique Understanding-Based approach to conflict resolution and conducted introductory and advanced training programs for thousands of lawyers and other professionals in the United States. The Center originally focused principally on mediation, integrating the principles of understanding based mediation into the practice of law and the resolution of legal disputes. The Center's model is used in legal disputes in commercial, family and other legal settings.
The use of the Understanding-Based model has now expanded to apply these principles in collaborative practice, non-profit organizations, ombuds work, traditional legal representation and other settings in which professionals wish to help parties work through conflict in a different way.
In addition to Center sponsored trainings, Center trainers also regularly conduct trainings in cooperation with other educational institutions, including at Harvard's Program of Instruction for Lawyers and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Since 1990, the Center has trained conflict professionals in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Israel, Italy, France and Russia.
