Doug Noll is an acclaimed advanced mediation advocacy and legal negotiation skills trainer. As a mediator, he specializes in mediating difficult, complex, and intractable conflicts. Since his first meditation in 1981, he has conducted over 2,000 mediations, both litigated and non-litigated.
As a negotiation trainer, Doug has trained in 10 states, in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. He conducts public and private corporate negotiation workshops to senior business and legal executives.
In addition to his law degree, Mr. Noll has a Masters Degree in Peacemaking and Conflict Studies. Mr. Noll is AV-rated and was a business and commercial trial lawyer for 22 years before becoming a full-time mediator. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, and on the American Arbitration Association panel of mediators and arbitrators. Mr. Noll was one of the first U.S. mediators certified under the international mediator standards established by the International Mediation Institute. He is listed in the Who’s Who of International Commercial Mediators.
Mr. Noll is past president of the California Dispute Resolution Council, a post he held from 2011 to 2013.
Along with his colleague Laurel Kaufer, Mr. Noll was honored by California Lawyer Magazine as California Attorney of the Year in 2012 for their pro bono Prison of Peace project. Mr. Noll has also been honored as a 2014 Lawyer of the Year by BestLawyers.com. In 2014, Mr. Noll was named a Purpose Prize Fellow by Encore.org.
In 2017, Mr. Noll was honored by his peers in the International Academy of Mediators with the Sid Lezak Award of Excellence. In 2018, Mr. Noll was honored as the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals Neutral of the Year.
He is the creator of Negotiation Mastery for the Legal Professional, an on-line legal negotiation training course.
Mr. Noll’s latest book, De-Escalate: How to Calm an Angry Person in 90 Seconds or Less, won the Book Excellence Award in Leadership and has been an Amazon best-seller. It is currently published in four languages.
He is the author of Elusive Peace: How Modern Diplomatic Strategies Could Better Resolve World Conflicts (Prometheus Books, April 2011). Elusive Peace was the winner of the Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR) International Peace and Justice Book Award for 2011.
In addition, Mr. Noll is the author of Sex, Politics & Religion at the Office: The New Competitive Advantage (Auberry Press 2006), with John Boogaert, and Peacemaking: Practicing at the Intersection of Law and Human Conflict (Cascadia 2002).
He has written numerous articles on peacemaking, negotiation, restorative justice, conflict resolution and mediation. He is a trainer, lecturer, and continuing education panelist. Doug has been voted as one of the Best Lawyers in America since 2005 by US News & World Report and has been recognized as a Northern California Super Lawyer.
Mr. Noll’s teaching affiliations include:
- Adjunct Professor of Law, San Joaquin College of Law
- Adjunct Professor of Law, Straus Institute, Pepperdine School of Law
- Core Faculty, American Institute of Mediation
- Faculty Member, Advanced Professional Skills Development Program, Straus Institute, Pepperdine School of Law
- Co-Founder and Academic Director, Prison of Peace Project
- California and Florida approved MCLE provider
- Keynote speaker and independent trainer
I created Negotiation Mastery for the Legal Professional for three reasons.
First, based on my observations of thousands of negotiations, I felt that I could offer something valuable to my colleagues the legal profession.
Second, I could not find any in-depth, advanced mediation advocacy or legal negotiation course on-line.
And finally, I wanted to provide inexpensive, cutting-edge training to those lawyers who wished to excel in mediation advocacy and legal negotiation.
I spent a lot of time looking at on-line negotiation courses. All of them fell short of my standards as a teacher and trainer. They were not sufficiently detailed, not practical, and not based on the latest empirical knowledge of decision-making, behavioral economics, and neuroscience. For the most part, the offerings rehashed old myths and conventional wisdom that have proven to be deadly wrong in modern mediations and negotiations.
And, none of the on-line offerings were presented by experienced teachers and mediation practitioners. In short, they were not courses I would recommend or take. So, I decided to see if I could create something much better.
Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA