For HLS Students

HMP is open to all HLS students. 1Ls can apply as soon as they arrive on campus!  Once accepted into HMP’s 32-training, HMP members can expect the following during their first semester once basic training is completed:

Mediation
New members mediate every other week either in a small claims session of a local district court or in tenant-tenant disputes in local housing authorities.  (See below for information on HMP's tenant-tenant program.)  Approximate time commitment every other week for students is three hours – not including travel time.

Supervision
HMP’s experienced liaisons and mediators provide feedback to new mediators. Providing feedback is a fundamental aspect of HMP’s model.

Office Hours
New HMP student members work in the HMP office every other week for one semester.

Roundtables
Offered two to three times each semester, HMP’s Clinical Supervisor Prill Ellis provides an opportunity for HMP members to discuss their mediation experiences.

Mediation Certificate
At the end of the semester, new members are presented with mediation certificates at HMP's "graduation."  During this social event, new members connect with one another and with board and staff members to share their mediation experiences.

Pro Bono Credit (beginning spring semester of 1L year)
HMP student members are able to earn pro bono credit.  Mediating, helping at HMP office hours and participating in HMP training all count toward the HLS pro bono requirement.

Tenant-Tenant Program
Begun in earnest in the fall of 2008, HMP’s tenant-to-tenant program provides first year HLS students, who otherwise cannot mediate in small claims court, with a parallel opportunity to mediate disputes between tenants living in public housing.  HMP receives case referrals from Executive Directors of local housing authorities in the greater Boston area.  Housing authorities provide housing for both seniors and handicapped persons of low-income.  Tenant-to-tenant cases are coordinated by Mike Steinberg, HMP’s Advanced Case Coordinator, who schedules HMP trainees in the tenant-to-tenant program to first observe a case being mediated by experienced HMP mediators and then to co-mediate with an experienced HMP member.  Cases are scheduled around the first year law school student’s schedule and are mediated on-site at the referring housing authority.