Biography
Richard Birke is a Senior Vice President and the Executive Director of the JAMS Institute, the education and training arm of JAMS.
He served as a full-time law professor for 25 years, and for the last 22, he directed the Center for Dispute Resolution at Willamette University. Under his leadership, the Center achieved a “Top 5” ranking in US News and a 9th Circuit ADR Education award. Personally, he has been awarded two national writing awards for his work adapting psychology and neuroscience to ADR.
As a mediator, Birke has been involved in the settlement of the largest civil rights action in US history, the creation of a 35,000 acre wilderness, the resolution of a lawsuit between the federal government and the Portland Police department, involving international child abduction, and many others.
As a trainer, Birke has travelled the world, training mediators and advocates in Russia, Egypt, Korea, the EU, all over North America and dozens of other places, and he has lectured at Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Duke and many other colleges and universities across the US.
As a former prosecutor and trial attorney, Birke has tried more than 500 cases through to verdict, and engaged in plea bargaining negotiations in thousands more.