I have been practicing law since 1985 (for 17 years at Hill & Barlow, and now at Boston Law Collaborative, LLC, which I founded in 2003). I have served as a mediator, arbitrator and professional dispute resolver since 1992, and was a founding member of MCLC in 2000. I am also the co-chair of the Collaborative Law Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution.

In addition to my work at Boston Law Collaborative, I am on the faculty at Harvard Law School, where I currently teach three courses: Collaborative Law and Legal Ethics; Mediation; and Diversity and Dispute Resolution. I have published three books and a number of articles on dispute resolution, which can be accessed on the Boston Law Collaborative website by clicking on my profile page.

Education: J.D., 1984, Harvard Law School (magna cum laude; editor, Harvard Law Review); M.A., 1974, Cornell University (American Studies) (all but dissertation completed toward Ph.D.); B.A., 1970, Princeton University (summa cum laude) (English literature).

Honors: Lifetime Achievement Award from American College of Civil Trial Mediators; Advanced Practitioner, Association for Conflict Resolution; Certified Mediator, Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation; Martindale-Hubbell ‘A-V’ rating (highest rating); listed in book ‘The Best Lawyers in America’ (2005 to present); listed as a Massachusetts ‘SuperLawyer’ in Boston Magazine (2005 to the present); received Community Peacemaker Award in 2005 from Community Dispute Settlement Center; received MCFM’s John Fiske Award for excellence in mediation.

All of my current work involves serving as a collaborative attorney, mediator, and arbitrator. I have devoted myself with enthusiasm to those practices since 1991, when I began to shift my practice away from litigation. I see my job as helping clients solve problems and, in most cases, I am able to help them avoid litigation. In the world of law, trial work is somewhat akin to surgery — the procedure of last resort, when less invasive measures have failed. I have chosen — after spending 17 years as a litigator, and then mediator/arbitrator, at Hill & Barlow — to practice in a very different setting. Boston Law Collaborative, LLC is a multidisciplinary practice, devoted to collaborative law and dispute resolution, in which lawyers and mediators work closely with a psychologists and financial professionals to serve the full range of needs that clients typically bring to divorce, family, family-business, employment, and commercial cases. Articles about our practice are available at our web site: www.BostonLawCollaborative.com (click on ‘What’s New’), and I welcome email inquiries about our work at DHoffman@BostonLawCollaborative.com.

Professional Memberships: Founding Member, Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council, Past chair, American Bar Association, Section of Dispute Resolution (2004-2005), Past president, Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (New England Chapter), Past chair, Boston Bar Association ADR Committee, Member, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution (1994-2002), Massachusetts Bar Foundation, American Bar Foundation, International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (Member of Ethics Task Force, 2007-2009), Fellow, International Academy of Mediators.