Wallace Stegner Center Green Bag
Report Card on Environmental Dispute Resolution in Utah: Incomplete, But Showing Progress

Michele Straube, Director of Environmental Dispute Resolution Program at the Wallace Stegner Center

S.J. Quinney College of Law, Room 106

1 hour CLE, email communications@law.utah.edu

As one of its first projects, the Stegner Environmental Dispute Resolution Program undertook an informal assessment of Environmental Dispute Resolution (EDR) in Utah. Over a period of five months, Ms. Straube conducted over thirty confidential interviews with and received over eighty responses to a written survey from a cross-section of stakeholder interests involved in environmental and natural resource conflicts in Utah. Ms. Straube will share the results of this informal assessment, including a summary of past and present EDR efforts in the state, participants’ opinions about which EDR approaches work well and which do not, and an identification of the barriers and opportunities for expanding the use of EDR in Utah.

Michele Straube was a practicing lawyer for more than 15 years, representing private and public sector clients. She has extensive experience with administrative agencies in their regulatory and enforcement functions. For the past 15 years, she has focused exclusively on alternative dispute resolution, including mediation, facilitation, training, and collaborative problem-solving. Professor Straube maintained a private mediation practice in which she designed and facilitated consensus-building processes and offers conflict management training.  In addition to being on several national rosters for environmental third-party neutrals, she conducted mediations for the U.S. Postal Service REDRESS program, and has been a long-term-care ombudsman for Salt Lake County. More>>