
Alyson Carrel
Educator + Trainer + Speaker + Coach/Consultant

Alyson Carrel is a clinical professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and Co-Director of its nationally-ranked Center on Negotiation, Mediation, and Restorative Justice.
As an educator, Alyson guides her students in reflective and practical exercises that build upon their experiences. As a trainer, Alyson takes complex academic theories and presents them with clarity and simplicity. As a speaker, Alyson injects passion and energy into her talks that are palpable in any space--whether in-person or online. As a coach & consultant, Alyson helps demystify problems and see possibility in the midst of conflict, uncertainty, and change.
In essence, Alyson encourages others to try something new, look at issues a little differently, and recognize there are many paths forward.
ALYSON IN ACTION
Alyson's primary motivation is encouraging others to try something new, look at issues a little differently, and recognize there are many paths forward. To support this goal, she is working on various longer-term projects designed to support her students and others in the legal and dispute resolution professions. Explore this slideshow to learn more.

Delta Model
In 2018, Alyson worked with individuals from Thomson Reuters, Michigan State University, and Northwestern to develop the Delta Model, a new competency model that visualizes the holistic set of skills legal professionals need to succeed. Her first article describing the model was published as part of the Legal Intelligence through Artificial Intelligence symposium at Georgia State University College of Law.
Design Your Delta
Alyson is working with Cat Moon (Vanderbilt) to push the Delta Model into action. They are applying a human-centered design approach to the Delta Model framework and creating a set of diagnostic and self-reflection tools to support individuals and organizations chart a path to success. Individuals say their approach contextualizes the singular "how to think like a lawyer" focus in law school, expands career options, and individualizes the meaning of success.

Settlement Innovation
Alyson is troubled by the longstanding tension between individual privacy and public accountability in settlement, and is exploring integrative solutions that preserve the freedom to settle privately while ensuring that systemic harms don't disappear behind closed doors. Her work on secure multi-party computation (MPC) shows how parties can settle privately while simultaneously publishing encrypted settlement data that informs the public about the extent to which harms are occurring. At the heart of this work is a new matrix that helps practitioners understand the privacy-transparency tension in settlement and identify integrative opportunities within it. In 2025, her collaboration with Peter K. Chan (JD/PhD, Northwestern), Xiao Wang (Northwestern), and Mayank Varia (Boston University) earned Best Paper at the 4th ACM Symposium on Computer Science and Law.

Instructional Technology
Alyson is passionate about the use of technology in the classroom as a means of enhancing student engagement (beyond remote learning). In 2015, Alyson was featured in the AALS Teaching Methodologies video discussing the value of adopting instructional technology to more effectively engage the millennial generation of students and prepare them for a 21st-century practice of law. In 2017, as Assistant Dean of Law & Technology Initiatives at Northwestern School of Law, she launched TEaCHLaw, a program to train and support law faculty to use instructional technology. Before, during, and since the start of the pandemic, students regularly highlight the ease with which she integrates technology in the classroom.
Reimagining Series
In 2020, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and a re-emerging national reckoning with race and policing, Alyson began a series of talks and articles about the opportunity--and duty--to reexamine our assumptions and truths, revisit historic critiques, and reimagine a world that lives up to its potential.
- READ Reimagining Settlement (discussing the use of multi-party secure computation to create new settlement options)
- READ Reimagining the Legal Profession Pipeline (exploring the Delta Model framework as a means for reimagining legal education and licensing)
- WATCH Reimagining Mediation (reflecting on the stagnant state of mediation and need for innovation)
- WATCH Reimagining Negotiation (expanding the notion of technology in negotiation beyond online platforms such as zoom)
- WATCH Reimagining Family Mediation, with Colin Rule (describing new opportunities in mediation through the use of emerging technology)

ADR as First Career
Alyson started her career in dispute resolution after graduating college and was frustrated to hear mentors tell her she needed to practice law for 20 years before she could have a successful career in dispute resolution. So she created this blog. ADR as First Career is a video blog celebrating the stories of individuals who successfully launched a career in Alternative Dispute Resolution right after, or soon after, graduating with an advanced degree. Over 50 individuals have shared their stories dispelling the myth that you must first establish a reputation and expertise in another substantive area before starting out in ADR.
Contact Alyson
Send an email to alysoncarrel @gmail.com or schedule a meeting on Alyson's online calendar




