DePaul University has opened a Dispute Resolution Center, which is offering customized certificate training programs in mediation and negotiation for businesses on-site. Conflict management skill training is tailored for the needs of each individual business. The center will provide training on site or in the classroom.

The first training for management is scheduled for March 25- 27 and April 1-2 at the Loop Campus.

The center was established by DePaul to meet the increasing demand for mediation training.

"If you learn mediation," said Katheryn Dutenhaver, executive director of the center, "many problems are preventable or can be solved before the problems escalate into a law suit.

"Instead of trying to establish in court whose past conduct was right or wrong," she said, "mediation looks to the future to craft the best business solution."

Mediation can reach a resolution faster than in the overloaded courts, she said. It also can be less expensive than courtroom resolution. "The use of mediation has become the trend for conflict resolution management by managers within their day-to-day jobs," according to Dutenhaver.

Sponsored by DePaul's Office of Continuing and Professional Education, this program offers training for managers of corporations, governmental units, institutions, non-profit organizations and professional associations. The goal is to train managers at the business site in negotiating and mediating skills which will help them in staff management, business planning and dispute resolution.

"This is the first Certificate in Negotiation/Mediation offered by a major university in the Chicago metropolitan area," said Thomas Gibbons, director of OCPE.

"We believe this program, offered jointly by DePaul's College of Law and OCPE, will provide a high-quality educational opportunity for professionals who are increasingly turning to negotiation and mediation as an alternative to costly litigation, whether that litigation involves the courts or even arbitration," said Gibbons.

In addition, DePaul's Dispute Resolution Center will begin offering on campus classes in mediation training for attorneys beginning this May. As with business training, the center will provide the training on-site, or attorneys can enroll in classes at several campus sites.

DePaul's College of Law has been offering mediation classes since 1986 for law students. DePaul established the center to expand on that success.

Dutenhaver, a law professor at DePaul since 1974, is considered one of the leading mediators and trainers in the country.

In addition to training others in the process, she has mediated or arbitrated cases involving construction, coal mining, insurance, intellectual property, real estate, professional business association conflicts, employment disputes, health care matters, educational issues, governmental conflicts and marital issues.

She currently serves on the Blue Ribbon Mediator Panel of the American Arbitration Association and has served on dispute resolution committees for the Illinois Supreme Court, the Circuit Court of Cook County, the Chicago Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

Susan Krause, a 1982 DePaul College of Law graduate, has been named director of the center's corporate training. She also is the vice president and general counsel to ServiceMaster Management Services and secretary of ServiceMaster.

For more information contact Dutenhaver at 312/362-6325.