Andrea Schneider

Before Andrea Kupfer Schneider even knew or understood the words negotiation or mediation, she figured a way to outsource her chores to her younger brother by paying him a part of her allowance. Not a new trick, but noteworthy that she hit upon the idea naturally. Such is the somewhat tainted beginnings of what would become a notable career as a professor and prolific writer in the disciplines of legal practice, deal making and conflict management. Only many years later, having obtained her A.B. degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs and Public Policy at Princeton University, and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School, and studying with Roger Fisher and others associated with the Negotiation Project, did her interest and passion for understanding how people deal with difficult issues and make decisions begin to gel. And afterwards, she enhanced the breadth of her perspective with study and a postgraduate Diploma from the Academy of European Law in Florence, Italy. She joined the faculty of Marquette University Law School in 1996, where she continues to teach ADR, Negotiation, Ethics, and International Conflict Resolution and is the Director of the nationally ranked Dispute Resolution Program.

Andrea’s writing reflects an integrated perspective of the importance of negotiation and mediation that is not bounded to one or a few particular disciplines. She is either an author, co-author, co-editor, or contributor to numerous books, texts and articles in the field of dispute resolution, including: the forthcoming Negotiation Essentials for Lawyers (ABA 2019) building on the two volume Negotiator’s Desk Reference and, earlier, The Negotiator's Fieldbook all with Christopher Honeyman; Negotiation: Processes For Problem-Solving and Mediation: Practice, Policy & Ethics, and Dispute Resolution: Beyond The Adversarial Model with Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Lela Love & Jean Sternlight; and co-author of two books with Roger Fisher, Beyond Machiavelli: Tools For Coping With Conflict and Coping With International Conflict. And beyond practice theory, strategies and techniques, she also explored the frequently overlooked presence of negotiative process in every part of our society; her book, Creating The Musee d’Orsay: The Politics of Culture in France, explores the place of negotiation and politics in art and architecture, and her most recent book, Smart & Savvy: Negotiation Strategies in Academia, written with her father David Kupfer, a researcher and emeritus professor of psychiatry, as the title suggests, explores the necessity for negotiation in an arena that is not easily or openly admitting of the need for such skills. Andrea has also published numerous articles on negotiation, ethics, pedagogy, gender and international conflict and currently serves as the co-chair of the editorial board of the ABA Dispute Resolution Magazine. She is a founding editor of Indisputably, the blog for ADR law faculty and the 2017 recipient of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work, among other awards. All of this is capped off with her 2016 TEDx talk entitled Women Don’t Negotiate and Other Similar Nonsense.

Her range and scope of interest in how negotiative work can be done more effectively not only in legal practice but in the surrounding politics and culture of our society makes her perspective all the more valuable.

Contact Andrea Schneider

Articles and Video:

Personal Histories in Conflict Resolution Interview Series: Andrea Schneider (11/16/21)
From the Mediate.com interview series -- a conversation with Andrea Schneider about her chapter in the book Evolution of a Field: Personal Histories in Conflict Resolution.

Negotiation Will Not Fix Sexism (10/23/21)
Let’s start with the obvious–it pains me to realize that negotiation can’t fix everything.

ADR & Activism Through Art - Maya Angelou and Frida Kahlo (04/01/21)
This article focuses on creativity and negotiation role models.

Be Open like Oprah and Candid like Chrissy (03/19/21)
This article discusses the framing piece of how you talk and what makes people want to listen.

Have Empathy like Eleanor (and be Perceptive like Princess Diana) (03/05/21)
My next examples of negotiation skills come straight from the pandemic–and by that I mean watching television for hours during the pandemic!

Open- v Closed-Ended Questions (02/05/21)
I’m about to teach a bit on interviewing and counseling and am using a fun video on different types of questions courtesy of my nieces.

Andrea Schneider Interview - The Future of Mediation and Negotiation in Our Culture, Politics and Society (08/07/19)
This is an interview with Andrea Schneider by Robert Benjamin discussing negotiative strategies.

Heartbroken in Pittsburgh (11/01/18)
I thought that teaching the Kavanaugh hearings in a careful and respectful manner a few weeks ago would be the biggest teaching challenge of the semester. I was wrong.

Andrea Schneider's Award Acceptance Speech (04/28/17)
Andrea was kind enough to forward me a copy of her acceptance speech from Saturday. As you might expect it was inclusive, clever and funny. If you had to leave early and missed the luncheon, the text is included below. Make sure you read it in Andrea’s voice to get the full effect! ~ Kelly Browe Olson

Our Peacebuilding Pope (10/02/15)
The Pope, a rabbi and an imam…sounds like the beginning of a very funny joke but last week was a reality. elliot pope As you likely know, last Friday the Pope hosted an interfaith prayer gathering at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. This was trailblazing and I’ve linked to the video here for those you who have not yet seen it.

Yes, Make them Negotiate (09/12/15)
A quick follow up to circle back on my proposal to have my 70 students negotiate the parameters of their ADR class. I it was great! They all negotiated and the group reached agreement. Here are the benefits I’ve seen so far.

Sacred DR Story–The Wise Woman of Abel of Beth-maacah (08/14/15)
There’s a sacred ADR story in the Second Book of Samuel, which relates how the negotiating skills of a “wise woman” saved her city of Abel of Beth-maacah. 2 Samuel 20: 1-22*. A man named Sheba son of Bichri tried to incite a rebellion among the people of Israel against King David and the people of Judah.

Instead of Eliminating Negotiation, How About Eliminating Backlash? (05/01/15)
Reddit announced that they will no longer negotiate starting salaries (in order to avoid gender bias). The Program on Negotiation followed up Ellen Pao’s gambit noting three problems with her approach: (1) women aren’t the problem (it’s the backlash and societal expectations that are the problem)l; (2) negotiation isn’t a competition; and (3) forbidding negotiations could backfire (people will go elsewhere for their jobs.)

Talking About Ferguson (12/05/14)
We have started the last week of classes in ADR this week and usually, at this time in the semester, I turn to the overarching subject of how to counsel clients when choosing among different dispute resolution processes. Last night, I took a deep breath, and asked the class to think about the situation in Ferguson.

Prisoner’s Dilemma Game Show (09/19/14)
In class earlier this week, we rebooted the idea of the prisoner’s dilemma as previously portrayed on The Bachelor Pad (discussed on the Freakonomics Blog and four years ago on this site). This time, the conversation revolved around a British game show called Golden Balls that was very popular several years ago. I can only assume that you’ve already discounted Golden Balls’ educational value based on its name alone but bear with me . . .

ABA DR Section Survey on Gender Differences (02/07/14)
The ABA Section on Dispute Resolution conducted a survey last year of its lawyer members and the results are in!

Israel Reflections: Dinner with the Baraks (04/03/11)
As followers of the blog know, one of the high points of our trip to Israel was dinner with Justice Aharon Barak and his wife Judge Elika Barak. We were also joined by their daughter, Tamar, who is a mediator. Interestingly from the dispute resolution perspective, Justice Barak was the judge who brought mediation to Israel through the Supreme Court, permitting cases to be referred to mediation

Negotiation Advice From An International Arbitrator (10/18/10)
Last week, I was delighted to welcome Lucy Reed, a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and co-chair of their international arbitration group as our inaugural speaker for our speakers series on Gender & Negotiation, funded by the University Centennial Celebration Fund to celebrate 100 years of women at Marquette.