The Center
for Public Resources Institute (CPR) of New York City has named Thomas J. Stipanowich, a
University of Kentucky College of Law professor, as its first CPR-Hewlett Scholar for
Dispute Resolution.CPR is a national organization that was founded by leading Fortune
500 companies and other organizations. It is dedicated to researching and improving the
quality of out-of-court conflict resolution.
Stipanowich's duties will include serving as director of the CPR Commission on
the Future of Arbitration and as editor of a book to be published by the commission
titled, "Fulfilling the Promise of Commercial Arbitration: Creative Answers for
Business Users."
The commission, a blue ribbon assembly of leading lawyers, law professors and retired
federal judges, including former CIA and FBI head William Webster, is expected to publish
next year its guidelines for businesses submitting disputes to private tribunals.
Stipanowich's year-long professorship is supported by the CPR and the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation.
Stipanowich is the William L. Matthews Professor in the UK College of Law. He is a
noted teacher and writer on the processes for resolving disputes outside the courtroom,
including mediated negotiation and binding arbitration.
"Today, there is unprecedented experimentation with various methods of managing
and resolving conflict," Stipanowich said. "There are many opportunities to make
a difference nationally as well as locally."
Stipanowich helps set policies and procedures governing investor/broker disputes in the
Securities Industry Conference on Arbitration. He is also academic adviser for the
revision of the Uniform Arbitration Act and was reporter for a national due process
protocol for private dispute resolution processes in consumer transactions.
Locally, he helped establish the Mediation Center of Kentucky, Inc., a non-profit
organization that serves as a model for community mediation in the Commonwealth. He was
recently named an honorary fellow of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators and an
honorary member of the Marie Garibaldi Inn of Court and has been quoted in "The
National Law Journal," the "American Bar Association Journal" and the
"Wall Street Journal."
Stipanowich has degrees in architecture and law from the University of Illinois and has
taught at UK since the mid-1980s.
