Stephen Goldberg
Director
NTR Mourns the Loss of Co-Founder and Board Member Stephen Goldberg
NTR is saddened to announce the passing of Stephen Goldberg, co-founder and esteemed board member. Steve Goldberg, an emeritus professor at the Pritzker School of Law, Northwestern University, was a trailblazer in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).
Steve co-authored the first law school textbook on ADR, 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 believed that the mediator’s 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.
In addition to his scholarship, Steve was an active arbitrator in labor and commercial disputes. His negotiation and dispute resolution exercises, including the widely used “Texoil” simulation, have enriched classrooms and shaped the learning of thousands of students annually.
In recognition of his contributions, in 2023 NTR established the Goldberg Fellowship, awarded to participants in the AALS Section on ADR’s New Voices in Dispute Resolution mentorship program.
NTR extends its deepest sympathy to Steve Goldberg’s family and celebrates his monumental contributions to the ADR movement and beyond.
