Melinda J. Branscomb

Biography

Professor Branscomb's areas of expertise are educational administration, employment law, employment discrimination, labor law, and the dispute resolution fields of negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and collaborative law. In her prior career in university administration, she served as Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Vanderbilt University and as Assistante à la Direction de Vanderbilt-en-France. She received her J.D. in 1980 (first in class) and received from the faculty a rare "Chancellor's Citation for Extraordinary Academic Achievement." Professor Branscomb clerked for Justice Ray Brock, the Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court and served as Assistant Attorney General for the State of Tennessee. Subsequently she served as Assistant General Counsel of the United Paperworkers at its International Headquarters. In that capacity she worked to prevent and resolve workplace disputes, providing legal advice and training to elected employee leaders, and engaging in arbitration and litigation in state and federal courts and before the National Labor Relations Board throughout the U.S. and in Canada.

Professor Branscomb was trained as a mediator in 1989, the year she joined the law faculty. Over the last 20 years she has spearheaded the integration of dispute resolution courses into the law school's curriculum and mentored the creation and development of a thriving student dispute resolution board. Professor Branscomb is an active mediator and serves as a Special Education Mediator for the State of Washington. In that capacity, she mediates disputes between school districts and parents of children with disabilities throughout the state. She also has served as a mentor for mediators-in-training at two dispute resolution centers, and she conducts Continuing Legal Education programs and in-service trainings for mediators. The School of Law has received national recognition by the American Bar Association, as the teams that she coached and mentored in the ABA's competitions in Negotiation, Client Counseling, and Mediation consistently have placed at the highest levels regionally and nationally when competing against other law schools.

Professor Branscomb taught Collaborative Negotiations and Problem Solving to the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman's Office, conducted workshops in Cultural Preservation and Empowerment with indigenous women at Lake Atitlan; and taught Cross-Cultural Dispute Resolution at the law school's program in Rio de Janeiro. She has worked with law alumni and state and local bar groups to create and fund student opportunities in dispute resolution and labor and employment law, yielding over $120,000 to date in student scholarships and public interest job placements. Professor Branscomb is the author and co-producer of three DVDs and related materials that are used to train mediators. She is a frequent speaker at conferences on dispute resolution and on labor and employment law.

Audio-Visual Teaching and Training Publications

Melinda J. Branscomb and Sue Ann Allen, An Interest-based Mediation: From Workplace Dispute and Discharge to Accommodation and Agreement - A Narrated Mediator-training Video, (DVD 2010) (available at www.MediationTrainingResources.com). 1 hr. 32 minutes.

Melinda J. Branscomb and Sue Ann Allen, An Interest-based Mediation: From Workplace Dispute and Discharge to Accommodation and Agreement - An Unedited Mediation Session, (2010) (available at www.MediationTrainingResources.com). 2 discs, 3 hrs.

Melinda J. Branscomb and Sue Ann Allen, Stop Action! What Would You Do?- An Interactive Mediator Training Tool, (2010) (available at www.MediationTrainingResources.com). 6 scenes, 1 - 2 hours interactive session with audience.

Books and Related Teaching Materials

Melinda J. Branscomb & Sue Ann Allen, AN INTEREST-BASED MEDIATION: FROM WORKPLACE DISPUTE AND DISCHARGE TO ACCOMMODATION AND AGREEMENT - TEACHER'S AND TRAINER'S MANUAL, (2010) (available at www.MediationTrainingResources.com).

Melinda J. Branscomb & Sue Ann Allen, AN INTEREST-BASED MEDIATION: FROM WORKPLACE DISPUTE AND DISCHARGE TO ACCOMMODATION AND AGREEMENT - TRAINEE AND STUDENT HANDBOOK, (2010) (available at www.MediationTrainingResources.com).

Melinda J. Branscomb and Sue Ann Allen, STOP ACTION! WHAT WOULD YOU DO? - PRESENTER MATERIALS, (2010) (available at www.MediationTrainingResources.com).

Articles

Labor, Loyalty, and the Corporate Campaign, 73 B.U. L. Rev. 291 (1993). lead article; (commended to the audience by keynote speaker at the 30th Annual Midwest Labor Law Conference, Columbus, Ohio).

New Laws Bring Sweeping Changes to the Labor and Employment Field, THE LAWYER (Summer, 1992).

Liability and Damages in Libel and Slander Law, 47 Tenn. L. Rev. 814 (1980).

Co-author and drafter, numerous opinions of the State of Tennessee Attorney General.

Tribute to James E. Beaver, 19 Seattle U.L. Rev. xviii (1996).