Professor Alan Kirtley is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law and founding director of its Clinical Law Program. He received both his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Indiana University in Bloomington. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School and Ohio State University College of Law.
Before entering law teaching, Kirtley was a partner in a Michigan law firm. His practice specialty was business law and commercial litigation. Professor Kirtley teaches courses in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and negotiation, supervises law student mediators in the School's Mediation Clinic, and trains mediators twice annually in the law school's Professional Mediation Skills Training CLE.
Professor Kirtley was an academic advisor to the national drafting committee of the Uniform Mediation Act ("UMA"), a project of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association. He was instrumental in the passage of the UMA in Washington State. Professor Kirtley wrote an influential article entitled "The Top 10 Reasons for Adopting the Uniform Mediation Act in Washington." Once the UMA became law, he authored the User's Guide to Washington's Uniform Mediation Act to help the mediation community implement the new statute, RCW 7.07 et seq.
Professor Kirtley has published several articles in his field, including the first prize winner of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, Awards for Excellence in Alternative Dispute Resolution. He has presented at numerous conferences and training seminars concerning the UMA, as well as other ADR topics. His most recent publication is Chapter 13 -Alternative Dispute Resolution, in Berger Mitchell, Clark & Leahy, Pretrial Advocacy: Planning, Analysis, and Strategy (2nd ed., Aspen 2007) 479-503.
Professor Kirtley has served as Chair of the Washington State Bar Association's Dispute Resolution Section. He co-founded both the Northwest ADR Conference and the Northwest Clinical Teachers Conference. He received the UW Law School's 2009 Pacific Coast Banking School Faculty Service Award.
Professor Kirtley is the 2011 national Chair of the Section on Clinical Legal Education of the Association of American Law Schools.
Professor Kirtley has a private mediation practice and conducts trainings in both negotiation and mediation. He may be reached at 206-685-6802 or at kirtley@u.washington.edu.