Negotiators General Information

Prerequisites

Harvard Negotiators aims to provide all interested students with substantive access to clinical negotiation projects. With that in mind, there are no formal prerequisites.

Opportunities are available for students with all levels of experience in negotiation and dispute resolution. For those with no formal training, Harvard Negotiators offers a number of substantive projects that require no prior experience. For those who would like to receive training but have not had the chance to take the Negotiation Workshop, Harvard Negotiators offers short training sessions designed to bring students up to speed. For students who have already taken Negotiation Workshop, there are special opportunities for leading and/or developing new projects.

Training

Unlike many areas of legal education, negotiation is necessarily a practice-based skill. Appropriately, Negotiators focuses on providing training in negotiation over the course of a project through substantive work and interaction with more experienced Negotiators members.

For those projects that do require a basic theoretical background, Harvard Negotiators offers one to two hour training sessions for those who have not yet taken Negotiation Workshop. The training provides a brief and practical introduction to both the theoretical and practical aspects of negotiation. The goal for this training is to improve students understanding of negotiation and their effectiveness as negotiators.

Get Involved

Harvard Negotiators offers opportunities to practice, research and teach negotiation. Our members are involved with projects that cover a diverse array of subjects, including human rights, the environment, politics, and education.

Time commitment. The time commitment for each project varies from as much as a few hours per semester to a few hours per week. We will help you to choose projects that match your availability.
Your interests and experience level. Members can choose the projects they wish to be involved with based on their interests and experience level. If you are new to Negotiators, we will work to pair you with more experienced members of the organization.
Your ideas. Harvard Negotiators is open to student-generated project ideas. If you have any ideas for potential projects and would like help with development or collaboration, please contact one of our Project Directors. We are happy to work with you to set up new projects and build a team for working on them. If you have taken the Negotiation Workshop and would like to work on developing and/or leading new projects generally, please contact our Manager of Development.
Current Projects. Many of our projects are continuous, and new opportunities arise throughout the year. To learn about current projects, please contact us or come to our next meeting.

Clients: Work with Us

Harvard Negotiators provides prospective clients with substantive work in negotiation and dispute resolution from highly motivated Harvard Law School students. Some of the projects we have been involved with in the past include:

providing negotiation advice to disputing parties: helping to develop strategies for upcoming negotiations, conducting a conflict assessment of an ongoing dispute, helping to mediate/prep/debrief/provide critiques for professional negotiators
offering negotiation workshops for students and employees: providing the building blocks for basic negotiation skills and interpersonal problem-solving
assisting with negotiation curricula development: providing support to schools or other educational institutions for developing a negotiation curriculum, helping businesses or other organizations update or initiate a training program for employees, helping specialists, advocates, or social workers with training/advising their clients or constituents
assisting in negotiation research: research for academic publications, professional handbooks, articles, substantive research projects

If you would like to find out more about how Harvard Negotiators can help your organization, please contact us.