Dr. L. Randolph Lowry is one of the nation’s leading pioneers in the dispute resolution movement. In 1986, he established the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California. That program set much of the country’s agenda in the new field and has been named 15 times by U.S. News as the No. 1 law school program, besting programs at Harvard, Missouri, Ohio State and Hamline. He spent most of his career as a tenured law professor at Pepperdine and a visiting professor at Vermont Law School and Bond University in Australia, among many others. Dr. Lowry is currently serving as the 17th president of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. Since his arrival in September 2005, the university has experienced unprecedented growth – almost doubling in size – and in reputation.
Dr. Lowry is widely recognized as an effective mediator and passionate trainer who has worked in more than 40 states and on six continents. He has served as Vice President of JAMS (Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services), has consulted extensively with major Fortune 500 companies in conflict management and has been instrumental in establishing several dispute resolution organizations, including the Southern California Mediation Association.
Chris Bridges is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, where he served as an active member of the Black Law Students Association, the Asian Pacific Law Students Association, and the Latin American Law Students Association. He also holds an MS in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University, a BS in Political Science and BA in Criminal Justice, both from North Carolina Central University. Chris began his legal career in 2012 with the ACLU of Northern California as the Racial Justice Project Fellow, where he worked on school to prison pipeline issues as a member of the Education Equity team. Chris began his work at the Equal Justice Society in Oakland as the Butler Koshland Fellow and is currently focusing his legal advocacy on school discipline and education issues as well as inequities within the criminal justice system. To aid in these efforts, Chris is using social science, structural analysis and real-life experiences to help broaden conceptions of present-day discrimination to include implicit bias.
Andy Little is trained and certified as a Civil Trial Court and Family Mediator. With a flourishing full-time practice and more than 15 years of experience in mediation, Andy has mediated in excess of 4,000 cases. Prior to setting up his mediation practice, Andy has 17 years of experience as a trial lawyer in commercial, personal injury, domestic and criminal cases. Andy’s practice is now devoted exclusively to conducting mediated settlement conferences and teaching others mediation skills and techniques.
Mr. Little chaired the committees that created the mediation programs in North Carolina. He was the first chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Section, served two terms on the Dispute Resolution Commission and served as the Commission’s chair by appointment of the Chief Justice. Mr. Little is the author of Making Money Talk: How to Mediate Insured Claims and Other Monetary Disputes