The explosion in court-ordered mediation has created a large and increasing demand for trained mediators, or "neutrals." Judges in most states now have the power to insist that litigants hammer out their differences at the bargaining table, rather than the courtroom. But where do they find mediators who are versed in the ins and outs of some of the new laws, like employment discrimination, sexual harassment and workplace safety regulations? There are plenty of experts on those statutes, but unfortunately most lack all the skills needed to mediate effectively. And most well-trained mediators are clustered in labor relations and don't know enough about new laws outside that arena.

Now, however, there may be a remedy. Armed with a grant of $300,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) has formed an alliance with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and five other peer institutions and a handful of professional organizations, to train and certify specialized mediators, arbitrators, advocates and fact finders. The members of the newly formed National Alliance for Education in Dispute Resolution, or NAEDR, will meet in New York City Jan. 5 and announce their plans to produce a cadre of highly trained, well-informed neutrals to meet the burgeoning demand.

The new initiative is being led by Cornell ILR School professors David Lipsky and Ronald Seeber, who manage the ILR School's Institute on Conflict Resolution. "We live in a litigious society," said Lipsky. "Because of the backlog in the courts and the expense in time and money of litigation, everyone is looking for alternatives to the courts for resolving disputes."

Most states have created alternative dispute resolution, or ADR, programs, and a 1998 congressional statute now requires federal district courts to have such a program. "Some call it the ADR revolution," Lipsky said.

While ADR has the great advantage of being much faster (six months instead of six years) and cheaper by far than courtroom litigation, it also has its critics, who argue that it does not provide due process nor protect litigants' rights. Leading a witness and giving testimony based on hearsay, never permissible in court, are in fact allowable in arbitration, and normal rules of evidence can be dispensed with. "There's been some concern that it isn't a level playing field for all parties," said Lipsky.

But due process components can be injected into ADR. Professionals from the National Academy of Arbitrators, the American Bar Association and other prestigious groups have developed a due-process protocol for state employment disputes that might be used in other venues too. In fact the organizations that signed the protocol committed themselves to developing training for neutrals.

Lipsky, who also heads Cornell's Office of Distance Learning, one of the leading proponents of off-site education in the United States, hopes to use such high-tech options as video streaming and plug-ins that can be downloaded via the Internet to create a "virtual" training center in dispute resolution for NAEDR and will offer a certification program.

"With the new technology, we should be able to offer an education program that people across the country can take advantage of without requiring investments in costly videoconferencing equipment," he said.

In addition to Cornell and MIT, members of the alliance are Georgia State University, William J. Usery Center for the Workplace; Ohio State University, College of Law's Alternative Dispute Resolution Program; UCLA, Anderson Graduate School of Management's Institute of Industrial and Labor Relations; University of Illinois, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations; and Willamette University, College of Law Center for Dispute Resolution.

The professional organizations that have signed on so far include the National Academy of Arbitrators, the Industrial Relations Research Association, and the American Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Section. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services is expected to join the alliance soon, and others may follow.

The alliance's first challenge: to educate neutrals on such employment issues as safety and health, pension and retirement, workers' compensation and disability. A program addressing that challenge will take place in Longboat Key, Fla., Feb. 8. It will be cosponsored by the American Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Section.

For more information on NAEDR and its programs call Professor David Lipsky at (607) 255-5378, e-mail: dbl4@cornell.edu or Jacquelin Drucker, deputy director for education services and director of programs for neutrals at the Cornell ILR School's Institute on Conflict Resolution at (212) 340-2854, e-mail: jd32@cornell.edu.