Louis M. Brown Conflict Prevention Award by the Center for Civic Mediation

On Tuesday, April 17, 2012, Professors Floralynn Einesman and Linda Morton of California Western School of Law received the Louis M. Brown Conflict Prevention Award by the Center for Civic Mediation at its 19th Annual Awards Dinner in Los Angeles. Harold A. Brown, a name partner at the leading Beverly Hills entertainment law firm, Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown, Inc., is a longtime supporter of the Center for Creative Problem Solving, the Louis M. Brown Program in Preventive Law, and California Western School of Law. Mr. Brown’s introduction of Professors Floralynn Einesman and Linda Morton was, in part, the following:

My name is Harold Brown, and I am pleased and privileged this year to present the Louis M. Brown Conflict Prevention Award, an award in my father’s name and which very much encompasses his philosophy, to the California Western School of Law Advanced Mediation Program in Juvenile Hall, and to Professors Floralynn Einesman and Linda Morton, who created, designed, implemented and teach it. 
 
California Western Law School is a great place, which fosters creative visions and gives its professors great freedom to study and teach–even experiment in teaching–the skills of lawyering, writ large.  Professors Einesman and Morton picked up the challenge.  While their program had a number of objectives, their strongest desire was to train a new breed of lawyer, who would learn the skills of solving client’s problems in a non-confrontational way, by mediating some of the most difficult and most basic problems of people unused to solving them peaceably, at Small Claims Court and the Juvenile Hall and Girls Rehabilitation Facility in San Diego.
 
Professors Einesman and Morton knew, and the students learned, that the skills of conflict resolution are different than the skills of litigation.  Instead of dealing in the world of provable facts and law, you deal in the world of perceived facts, of emotions, communication, and respect–above all of emotional intelligence.  In their words, the emotionally intelligent lawyer is one who focuses on relationships with people rather than one who concentrates on facts and law.  To law students who have done nothing in their law school careers other than focus on facts and law, this is a revelation.  To many, it will be a life changing revelation because it can make them lawyers who will solve problems and be a comfort and an aid to their clients, and to the community, instead of lawyers who are too often, justifiably, the butt of jokes. 
 
To some of us, this may sound simple, and obvious.  It is neither.  Clinical mediation in real life – and difficult – situations is not part of law school curricula.  Its implementation is neither easy nor obvious until you meet someone who has done it.  I watched my father for his entire career as a professor struggle to bring what seemed simple and obvious concepts such as preventive law and conflict resolution to law schools across the land with much too little success – as law school faculty consistently responded to such things as unimportant, unteachable, unscholarly–in short, unworthy.  So I know that he would be very proud–and I should say delighted at 103 – to be presenting this award himself because he would know much better than I can know or convey what an important step this program is for legal education, for the students, and for those whose conflicts are being resolved.  It is truly a win, win, win program–so I am delighted to add one more win, and to present to the Advanced Mediation Program at California Western School of Law, and to Professors Einesman and Morton, one well deserved honor for their trophy case–The Louis M. Brown Conflict Prevention Award. 

After being introduced by Mr. Brown, Professors Einesman and Morton accepted the award and then spoke to the audience about the transformative nature of mediation for the 451 students who over the past fifteen years have taken the Advanced Mediation class at the law school and undertaken their field work at Juvenile Hall and the Girls Rehabilitation Facility in San Diego. They spoke also about the importance of the program to the long-term well-being and social life of the residents of this incarceration center.

Professor Linda Morton said, “We are particularly touched to receive an award named for Louis Brown, the founder of Preventive Law and a strong supporter of Clinical Legal Education.  I had the privilege of speaking with Louis Brown early in my career, and I was impressed by both his kindness and his deep concern that lawyers reach out to laypeople, as he did in his weekly newspaper column.   And here he is once again, this time reaching out to us, and supporting what we do.”
 
Professor Floralynn Einesman emphasized how much the students benefited from the class; she read to the audience the following excerpt from a student’s written journal for the class:  “I think one of the most personal benefits of this program has been the reminder of why I came to graduate school to begin with. I had lost part of myself in the education process. As the years of studying progressed, I had forgotten what had so passionately motivated me to be here.  While helping people in this class, especially the youth at the Girls Rehabilitation Facility, I remembered why I was here.  I remembered that I was here to learn skills to help the underrepresented and underserved populations.  This class’s mediation program does just that.”
 
The good work of California Western got out to the 400 assembled guests–lawyers, judges, and mediators mostly. The other award recipients that night were The Honorable Carolyn B. Kuhl (who received the Emil Gumpert Judicial Services Award) and the National Football League (which received the Corporate ADR Award, accepted by Commissioner Roger Goodell). Past winners of the Louis M. Brown Conflict Prevention Award include The Honorable Griffin B. Bell, Mike Farrell, Ambassador Dennis Ross, Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith, and Kenneth R. Feinberg.

Please find below a number of photographs that document the evening. We thank Eileen and Harold Brown for their tireless support of California Western School of Law, the Center for Creative Problem Solving, and the Louis M. Brown Program in Preventive Law, and we extend to Professor Floralynn Einesman, Professor Linda Morton, and the adjunct faculty involved in this program over the years our heartfelt congratulations.