ASU Law wins coveted 9th Circuit Award for second time

Honor recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of alternative dispute resolution


September 16, 2019

The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University was recently awarded the Ninth Circuit Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Education Award for 2019, presented by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The judicial council of the Ninth Circuit established the Ninth Circuit ADR Education Award to recognize law schools that have significantly advanced education, scholarship and research in the field of alternative dispute resolution, popularly known as ADR. photo of 2019 Schiefelbein conference Les Schiefelbein and Art Hinshaw at the 2019 Schiefelbein Global Dispute Resolution Conference at ASU Law. Download Full Image

This award marks the second time ASU Law has been recognized as a leader in ADR education. ASU Law also won this award in 2005, the first year in which it was given.

“I am extremely proud of our innovative work in alternative dispute resolution, and I am honored that our efforts have been recognized for a second time,” ASU Law Dean Douglas Sylvester said. “Our faculty and their dedication to the success of our students and clinical programs not only prove that they are committed to improving access to ADR curricula and education but to the field in general.”

All American Bar Association-accredited law schools within the Ninth Circuit were eligible to apply for this recognition. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals comprises Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, the U.S. Territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

ASU Law emerged as a leader in alternative dispute resolution education by successfully bridging theory and practice. This is possible in large part due to the impact of ASU Law’s Lodestar Dispute Resolution Center, led by Faculty Director and Clinical Professor Art Hinshaw. ASU Law's ADR program is ranked No. 10 in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

“This award recognizes the faculty’s dedication to advancing ADR as a critical element of our legal system. I can’t thank the faculty and ASU Law’s administration enough for its determination and hard work to get this center off the ground the past three years,” said Hinshaw.

The Lodestar Dispute Resolution Center expands ASU Law’s efforts to understand the nature of conflict and how best to resolve disputes outside a courtroom. Students, lawyers and nonlegal professionals learn the problem-solving methods and skills that lawyers and other conflict resolution professionals employ regularly to prevent and resolve disputes.

The Lodestar Center’s work is, in some respects, typical of dispute resolution programs across the country: offering a variety of courses, publishing scholarly works, presenting expert speakers, providing student opportunities outside the classroom and delivering a range of continuing educational programs. ASU Law’s Lodestar Center has distinguished itself from peer institutions — making it truly innovative — through its emphasis directed at the broader public to help resolve conflict before it becomes formalized in the courts.

“What sets ASU Law apart is our recognition that conflict permeates society and that our work shouldn’t be confined within the parameters of the legal world,” said Hinshaw. “We work with groups — both large and small — to teach nonlawyer professionals conflict resolution skills to enhance their job performance,” Hinshaw said.

photo of students at Mediation Clinic Justice Court

ASU Law students gain real-world experience with the Lodestar Mediation Clinic mediating cases at the Maricopa County Justice Courts.

ASU Law’s robust dispute resolution curriculum provides law students with both a framework to understand and to manage conflict using a variety of processes and real-world opportunities to practice dispute resolution techniques. The curriculum includes the following doctrinal and skills courses: arbitration, contract drafting and negotiation, dispute resolution in employment, dispute resolution survey, international dispute resolution, negotiation, mediation advocacy, and the Lodestar Mediation Clinic, where students can act as mediators in civil cases in the Maricopa County Justice Courts.

Besides the center’s curriculum, students have access to unique externships and are also encouraged to take advantage of additional programs and opportunities, such as moot court competition teams and the Dispute Resolution Student Association.

Since receiving the judicial council’s inaugural award in 2005, ASU Law has evolved significantly in the ADR space.

“This award recognizes our growth over time — becoming a center, beginning two high-profile public events — the Bruce E. Meyerson Lecture and the Schiefelbein Global Dispute Resolution Conference — creating a conflict resolution Master of Legal Studies degree, and working with groups like Amnesty International. Our program simply is much more robust since the last time we won the award,” said Hinshaw.

Nicole Almond Anderson

Director of Communications, Thunderbird School of Global Management

ASU orchestras' 2019-20 season dialogues masterworks, contemporary works


September 16, 2019

From some of the most celebrated masterworks to collaborations with living composers, multimedia artists and world-class soloists, the ASU School of Music orchestras' 2019-20 season ventures beyond previous seasons with performances aimed to rejuvenate orchestral repertoire.

“I’m tremendously excited about the upcoming season,” said Jeffery Meyer, associate professor in the ASU School of Music and director of ASU orchestras. “Audiences and students will be hard-pressed to find another orchestra in the country, whether professional or academic, that is expanding and curating the orchestral repertoire in the way that we are doing here at ASU. This year’s season will be measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom (and what) it includes. We are doing this without turning our back on the bedrock orchestral masterpieces that are at the heart of our tradition and art, and I hope that the way the ‘standard’ repertoire is integrated into new contexts, side-by-side with new works and sounds, will breathe new life into older works as well.” ASU orchestras The ASU Symphony Orchestra. Download Full Image

Meyer, winner of the 2019 American Prize – Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award in Orchestral Programming for the best achievement in the unique field of orchestral programming, is recognized for placing key masterworks of orchestral repertoire in dialogue with contemporary pieces in a way that advances the cultural experience of orchestral music.

The ASU orchestras are creating a new model for professional and preprofessional arts organizations that value the diverse potential of human creativity by offering some of the most enriching, innovative and technically outstanding concerts in the field today.

Tickets are available through the ASU Gammage box office, with free admission to some concerts as noted. General-admission tickets are $12 at the box office; fees apply for online advance purchase. Free ASU student tickets are available.

Northern Lights: Centenary Celebration of Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony
ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, conductor
Katherine McLin, violin
7:30 p.m. Sept. 21, ASU Gammage, ticketed

The ASU Symphony Orchestra opens its 2019-20 season with Sibelius’ soaring Symphony No. 5 in honor of the work’s centenary. The concert begins with Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks’ evocative concerto for violin and string orchestra “Tālā gaisma” or “Distant Light” featuring ASU’s Katherine McLin as violin soloist.

Towards a More Perfect Union, ASU Gammage Beyond
ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer and Daniel Roumain, co-directors
7 p.m. Oct. 5, ASU Gammage, ticketed

ASU Gammage Beyond, in collaboration with the ASU Symphony Orchestra, invites you to a theatrical concert with film and spoken word, highlighting new works and powerful compositions that speak to the challenges of our time. Works by Tamar-kali (Academy Award-nominated film "Mudbound"), Daniel Bernard Roumain (New York Times top 10 classical new works), Joel Thompson (ASU Projecting All Voices Fellow), Carlos Simon (Sundance/Time Warner Composer Fellow), renowned spoken-word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Grammy winners Joan Tower and Martha Gonzalez.

Joan Tower: "Made in America"
Martha Gonzalez: "Vendedores en Accion & Fandango Fronterizo" (World premier, arr. Noah Luna)
Carlos Simon: "This Land" (World premiere, ASU Symphony & ASU Beyond Competition Winner)
Tamar-kali: Excerpts from "Red Rice, Cotton and Indigo" (World premiere)
Daniel Bernard Roumain: "Cipher" (World premiere)
Joel Thompson: "La Lluvia" (World premiere)

ASU Orchestral Strings Graduate Recital
ASU Chamber Orchestra
Yun Song Tay, conductor
Francisco Hernández Bolaños, conductor
7:30 p.m. Oct. 9, Katzin Concert Hall, free admission

The strings of the ASU Chamber Orchestra immerse the listener in a landscape of works spanning over a century from the late romantic to the 20th century avant-garde under the batons of ASU Assistant Conductors Yun Song Tay and Francisco Hernández Bolaños.

Takemitsu: "Three Film Scores"
Ligeti: "Ramifications"
Elgar: "Serenade for Strings"
Britten: "Simple Symphony"

Schoenberg’s New World: Schoenberg, Korngold, Copland
ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, conductor
Michelle Di Russo, conductor
Jennifer Son, cello (2019 ASU Concerto Competition winner)
7:30 p.m. Nov. 8, ASU Gammage, ticketed

This concert features a dynamic collection of works written or revised in post-World War II United States. The first half of the concert presents works by Schoenberg and Korngold, both Austro-Hungarian Jewish refugees working in the United States after fleeing Europe in the 1930s. The concert concludes with Copland’s monumental Symphony No. 3, a work that some have called the “Great American Symphony,” expressing the spirit of a hopeful nation emerging from a generation of war.

ASU Professor Sabine Feisst, a world-renowned expert on Schoenberg, will offer a pre-concert talk revealing the historical and biographical context of these works. Her most recent book, “Schoenberg’s Correspondence with American Composers,” was published by Oxford University Press in 2018.

Schoenberg: "Five Pieces"
Korngold: Cello Concerto
Copland: Symphony No. 3

Fall Conductors' Concert
ASU Studio Orchestra
7:30 p.m. Nov. 20, Katzin Concert Hall, free admission

Graduate students in conducting lead the ASU Studio Orchestra in an exciting evening of music.

Mozart’s Kings: 'Coronation Mass' and 'Jupiter Symphony'
ASU Chamber Orchestra
ASU Chamber Singers and Choral Union
Jeffery Meyer and David Schildkret, conductors
Jiji Kim, guitar
7:30 p.m. Dec. 3, ASU Gammage, ticketed

Join the ASU Chamber Orchestra and ASU choirs in two of Mozart’s most celebrated masterworks. Guitar virtuoso and ASU faculty member Jiji Kim brings a slice of modernity to the concert, performing Hilary Purrington’s 2019 concerto “Harp of Nerves.”

Mozart: "Coronation Mass," K.317, C major
Hilary Purrington: "Harp of Nerves" (Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, 2019)
Mozart: Symphony No. 41, K.551, C major 

ASU Concerto Competition Finalist Concert
4 p.m. Jan. 30, Katzin Concert Hall, free admission

Join us as the finalists in the 2020 ASU Concerto Competition compete for the chance to perform with ASU's top ensembles.

Ravel, Kaminsky and Beethoven’s 'Pastoral Symphony'
ASU Chamber Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, conductor
Ursula Oppens, piano
7:30 p.m. Feb. 8, ASU Gammage, ticketed

The ASU Chamber Orchestra joins the global celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday with Beethoven’s beloved "Pastoral Symphony." The Grammy-nominated pianist Ursula Oppens joins the ASUCO on the first half of the concert performing Laura Kaminsky’s Piano Concerto.

Maurice Ravel: "Ma Mère l'Oye (Mother Goose)"
Laura Kaminsky: Piano Concerto (2011)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral”

Mazzoli, Pann and Dvorak Symphony No. 8
ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer and Yun Song Tay, conductors
Christopher Creviston, saxophone
7:30 p.m. Feb. 29, ASU Gammage, ticketed
4 p.m. March 1, Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, ticketed

Dvorak’s “Festival March” and Symphony No. 8 bookend this concert of thrilling new works by two major American composers: the other-worldly “Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres” by Missy Mazzoli (Chicago Symphony composer-in-residence) and a world premiere performance of a new concerto written for the ASU Symphony Orchestra and saxophonist Christopher Creviston by Carter Pann (2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist in music).

Weber, Liszt and Shostakovich Symphony No. 5
ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Michelle Di Russo and Francisco Hernández Bolaños, conductors
Aoshuang Li, piano (2019 ASU Concerto Competition winner)
7:30 p.m. April 2, ASU Gammage, ticketed
3 p.m. April 5, Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, Prescott, Arizona

Virtuosic romantic works by Weber and Liszt provide the first-half counterpoint to Shostakovich’s searing Symphony No. 5, written at the height of the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. Ever since its storied premiere in St. Petersburg in 1937, it continues to be performed and remembered among the most moving and dramatic works of its time.

Weber: "Overture to Der Freischütz"
Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No.5

Spring Conductors' Concert
ASU Studio Orchestra
7:30 p.m. April 13, Katzin Concert Hall, free admission

Graduate students in conducting lead the ASU Studio Orchestra in an exciting evening of music.

Mahler Symphony No. 2 'Resurrection'
ASU Symphony Orchestra
ASU Chamber Singers, Choral Union and Concert Choir
Jeffery Meyer, conductor
Carole FitzPatrick, soprano
Stephanie Weiss, mezzo-soprano
7:30 p.m. April 30, ASU Gammage, ticketed

The ASU Symphony Orchestra is joined by Carole FitzPatrick, Stephanie Weiss and the ASU choirs to end the 2019-20 season with Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 2. An all-embracing narrative continuing the metaphysical questions posed by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the work immerses the listener in a journey through life and death, traversing funeral rites and the marching dead, existential crisis and, finally, the soul’s ultimate redemption.

Lynne MacDonald

communications specialist, School of Music, Dance and Theatre

480-727-7189