Robert C. Bordone (Bob) is an internationally-recognized expert, author, speaker, and teacher in negotiation, conflict resolution, mediation, and facilitation.  A Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School, he served on the full-time faculty at Harvard Law School for more than twenty years as the Thaddeus R. Beal Clinical Professor of Law, Director, and Founder of the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program before launching his full-time consulting, advisory, speaking, and training practice.  He also serves as the Director of the Consensus Building Institute Training Academy and as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Bob has has also been a Visiting Clinical Professor of Conflict Transformation at Boston University’s School of Theology.

 As a professional facilitator, mediator, and conflict management consultant, Bob works with individual, non-profit, governmental, and corporate clients across many sectors. He specializes in assisting individuals and groups seeking to manage conflicts in highly sensitive, emotional, or difficult situations. His corporate clients have included Premera Blue Cross, Health Net, Gap, Inc., Fidelity Investments, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Exelon, Heineken, and Microsoft.  In addition, he has worked on projects with many nonprofit, educational, governmental and cultural institutions including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Massachusetts General Hospital, Dartmouth College, Deerfield Academy, the Swiss Foreign Ministry, the U.S. Department of Justice, the United Way, the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Seeds of Peace, and the Vienna School of Economics and Business Administration.

 He has also trained attorneys at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the National Association of Realtors, and many leading international law firms.

 During his time at Harvard Law School, Bob led the school’s flagship Negotiation Workshop, more than doubling its size. He also developed several new classes at Harvard including an Advanced Workshop on Multiparty Negotiation and Group Decision-Making and a Facilitation Workshop. 

 Bob is the recipient of many awards for teaching, research, and innovation. These include The Albert Sacks-Paul Freund Teaching Award at Harvard Law School, presented annually to a single member of the Harvard Law School faculty for teaching excellence, mentorship of students, and general contributions to the life of the Law School. The International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution’s (CPR) awarded Bob its Problem Solving in the Law School Curriculum Award for his innovative work in creating and building the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program.  Four graduating classes of Harvard Law School selected him to deliver a Last Lecture prior to their graduation, a recognition reserved for only four faculty members each year.

Bob’s current research and writing interests include the assessment, reform, design, and implementation of dispute handling systems and developing and testing methods of effective public dialogue on issues that cut to the core of identity, meaning, belonging, and belief. As part of this work on healthy dialogue, Bob has teamed with a media company called The Disagreement that fosters engaging and respectful conversation across lines of difference. In addition, he is currently writing Conflict Resilience: How to Change When You Can’t Change Other People (HarperCollins Business, 2025) with Joel Salinas, MD and is the co-author of two books: Designing Systems and Processes for Managing Disputes, 2d. Edition (Wolters-Kluwer, 2019) and The Handbook of Dispute Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2005). He has also published articles in leading business and dispute resolution journals including the Harvard Business Review, the Harvard Law Review, the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, the Journal of Dispute Resolution, Negotiation Briefings, Dispute Resolution Magazine, and Negotiation Journal. Bob’s writing and commentary have appeared in various print and broadcast media outlets including NBC News, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, America, The Chicago Tribune, CNN’s Situation Room, and BBC Radio.

Bob has served on a variety of advisory boards that include the Dartmouth College Center for Social Impact and the Harvard Law School Mediation Program.  He has served as Associate Editor of the Negotiation Journal and as a member of its Editorial Advisory Board, as well as a member of the Program on Negotiation Executive Committee, and as faculty adviser to the Harvard Mediation Program, the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, and Harvard Negotiators. Bob currently serves on the Board of Directors for Seeds of Peace, on the Advisory Board for the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, on the Board of the Systemic Justice Project at Harvard Law School, and on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Empathy in International Affairs. He is also an appointed member of Cambridge, Massachusetts LGBTQ+ Commission.

After graduating from law school, Bob clerked for The Honorable George A. O’Toole, Jr. of the United States District Court for Massachusetts.  In addition to his many years at Harvard Law School, Bob has also worked at the Washington D.C.-based law firm of Crowell & Moring, the New York-based law firm of Cravath, Swaine, & Moore, CBS News, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Boston Consulting Group.

 Bob received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and his A.B., summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College where he majored in Government.Follow him on Twitter with the handle @bobbordone on his website at www.bobbordone.com or by subscribing to his YouTube channel.