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David Matz

David Matz, J.D.

Email:  DMatz@themediationgroup.org
Civil Mediation, Arbitration, Facilitation, Organizational Development, Conflict Coaching, System Assessment and Design, Training 

David Matz has been active in the conflict resolution field for over 30 years mediating, training and teaching.  He served as Director of the Graduate Program in Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts/Boston from 1986 until 2010, and has been on the faculty as a law professor since 1973.  In 1989-90, David served as Fulbright Professor of Law at the University of Tel Aviv. David has served on panels for the Superior Courts of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution Environmental Panel and the American Arbitration Association Employment Disputes Panel.   

David has mediated a variety of cases with particular emphasis on commercial, employment, health care, and family business disputes, as well as conflicts within universities and other organizations, both local and international. He has designed and conducted trainings in mediation, negotiation, and conflict systems design for attorneys, judges, engineers, university faculty and deans, environmental staff, prison superintendents, doctors, business executives, schoolteachers and school committees, and other government officers. He has taught, trained, and lectured on conflict resolution in Nigeria, England, and China. He has also lectured extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

With TMG colleague Brad Honoroff, David has designed mediation systems for the Superior Courts in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Middlesex Counties. He has been consultant to the Chief Justice of the High Court and to the Ministry of Justice in Israel. His work has focused on the development of mediation and other ADR techniques for use in the Israeli courts. In Israel he has trained numerous judges, attorneys, executives, and mediators, and has lectured widely on the uses of mediation in many contexts. David has chaired the Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution for the Boston Bar Association, has served on the Governor’s Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution, and the Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution. He is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution, formerly the Society for Professionals in Dispute Resolution. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1963. 

David’s recent publications include: “No Career Ladder for Mediators” The International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, 2014, Volume 2, Issue 1, “Patient Voices in Clinical Practice Guideline Development” Matz, David, E., Zerkin, Allen, Gay, Amy Rebecca and Truppin, Nicola, Dispute Resolution Magazine, Summer 2014, Volume 20, Number 4,  Teaching Negotiation Online, Beyond the Classroom, DRI Press 2010, What Really Happened in the Negotiation, Rethinking Negotiation Teaching, DRI Press 2009, The Inevitability and Perils of ‘Invisible’ Health-Care Conflict, Hamline Journal of Law and Public Policy, Fall 2007. 

Over his career, David has been honored with numerous recognitions and awards: