Lela Porter Love

Lela Porter Love is a professor of law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (NYC) where she leads the Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution. Cardozo’s conflict resolution program has been one of the top ten dispute resolution programs in the United States for more than a decade, according to US News and World Report.

She founded (in 1985) and directs Cardozo’s Mediation Clinic, one of the first in the United States to train law students as mediators. Lela serves as mediator, arbitrator, and trainer for a variety of case types, including community, employment, family, probate, human rights, and commercial cases.

As Past Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, she initiated the first International Mediation Leadership Summit at the Peace Palace in the Hague.

She has written widely on the topic of dispute resolution, including three law school textbooks and three books about mediation—the Middle Voice, with Joseph Stulberg, Stories Mediator Tell, co-edited with Eric Galton, and Stories Mediators Tell—World Edition, co-edited with Glen Parker.

She has appeared on Court TV to demonstrate mediation.

She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Academy of Mediators and a Frontline Champion Award during the celebration of Mediation Week at the Association of the Bar of NYC.

Lela earned her B.A. from Harvard University, a M.Ed. from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law School. She is admitted to the Bar in New York, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia.