NTR Mourns the Loss of Co-Founder and Board Member Stephen Goldberg

Stephen Goldberg was a co-founder and esteemed board member of NTR and a trailblazer in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

Steve co-authored the first law school ADR textbook, Dispute Resolution: Negotiation, Mediation, Arbitration, with Frank Sander and Eric Green. His influential book, Getting Disputes Resolved, written with William Ury and Jeanne Brett, introduced three fundamental approaches to resolving disputes—interests, rights, and power—as well as the concept of systems design, which became a specialization in the ADR industry.

Among his many achievements, Steve pioneered the introduction of mediation into labor-management grievance procedures in the United States and conducted groundbreaking research demonstrating its effectiveness. His book How Mediation Works, co-authored with Jeanne Brett, Beatrice Blohorn-Brenneur, and Nancy Rogers, reflects his extensive experience and philosophy on mediation.

Steve is the mediator in the film, Mediation in Action, watched by thousands of students over the years. As a mediator Steve believed that his role was not merely to achieve a settlement but to ensure that all settlement options were thoroughly considered. This philosophy was a central theme in his keynote address when he received the International Association for Conflict Management’s Rubin Award for outstanding contributions to theory and practice.

Steve negotiation and dispute resolution exercises, particularly the popular Texoil, are used in hundreds of classrooms and by thousands of students annually. NTR recognizes Steve Goldberg’s contribution to ADR movement with the Goldberg Fellowship given to participants in the   AALS Section on ADR’s New Voices in Dispute Resolution mentorship program.