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 honor her students' unique lived 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.
Services
Trainer
transforming theory to practice
Sample Workshops
Managing Conflict Effectively
Negotiating Strategically
Advocating Collaboratively
Being/Seeing Yourself in Law
Speaker
championing new ideas
Previous Talks
Reimagining Our Field
Innovation in Dispute Resolution
Introducing the Delta Model
Design Your Delta
Coach/Consultant
guiding others during conflict/change
Coaching/Consulting Areas
Difficult Conversations
Career Planning
Surviving Law School
Negotiation
Thank you! Your session was absolutely phenomenal. I heard numerous comments from participants throughout Friday about how helpful it was.
-Workshop Client
Really incredible talk today. We received several thoughtful notes today commending your remarks and the timeliness of your lecture. Thank you for encouraging energy, creativity, and cross-disciplinary collaboration in our field.
-Keynote/Lecture Client
This was a wonderful session; Alyson was a dynamic speaker and I found the session as informative as it was enjoyable.
-Workshop Participant
She was easy to connect with, comfortable in her teaching and helped us understand concepts. She is a gifted educator!!!!
-Northwestern MBA Student
Professor Carrell is really great at structuring the course and providing materials via online, in a way that was the best remote experience I've had of any of my classes. She's also very knowledgable about the field, is doing really critical and innovative work on it, that allows for rich discussion. She has a lot of diverse experiences as well which made it easy for me to relate to her.
-Northwestern Law Student
Honestly, the best thing to come out of this situation is that I feel like I have an amazing team of advisors and I am so so grateful to have you on my team. It has been such a gift being able to pick your brain and use your rational clearheaded judgment applied to the situation. Thank you so much for all your help.
-Coaching Client
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.
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.
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.
Mediation Technology & Innovation
For the past decade, Alyson has promoted the increasingly important and vital role technology and innovation play in mediation (online and in-person). In 2019, she co-authored the article "Mind the Gap: Bringing Technology to the Mediation Table" with Professor Noam Ebner, imploring the dispute resolution field to embrace technology's increasing role in society or risk obsoletion. In 2020, she gave the closing plenary session for the Florida Dispute Resolution Center's annual conference on the possibilities available when we embrace technology and innovation.
Contact Alyson
Send a message below or schedule a meeting on Alyson's online calendar