Distinguished Fellow, International Academy of Mediators Lifetime Achievement Award, American College of Civil Trial Mediators D’Alemberte-Raven Award, American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution Professor Frank E.A. Sander Award in Dispute Resolution, Massachusetts Bar Association Founders Award, Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council
David Alan Hoffman (born 1947) is an American lawyer, mediator, arbitrator, author, and academic. He is the John H. Watson Jr. Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School.[1] He is also the founder of the Boston Law Collaborative, a law and dispute resolution firm.[2][3]
In 1991, Hoffman trained as an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association, and as a mediator in 1992 with the Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution. In 2000, he completed Collaborative Law training with the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council.[1]
Career
Following his clerkship, Hoffman joined the Boston law firm Hill & Barlow in 1985, becoming a partner in 1992 and founding its alternative dispute resolution practice group.[5] He also took a one-year leave to work as staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (1988–1989). After Hill & Barlow dissolved, he co-founded The New Law Center in 2002, focusing on non-adversarial law and mediation.[1][6]
In 2003, Hoffman founded the Boston Law Collaborative (BLC), a law and dispute resolution firm that received the American Bar Association’s Lawyer as Problem Solver Award in 2009[7] and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution’s Law Firm Award for Excellence in ADR in 2010.[8]
Hoffman has served in leadership roles within several professional organizations, including Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, Chair of the Massachusetts Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, and Chair of the Boston Bar Association ADR Committee. He has also been President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution and a founding board member of the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council.[9][10]
His TEDx talks on "Lawyers as Peacemakers" describes his decision to discontinue courtroom advocacy and focus exclusively on meditation, arbitration, and Collaborative law. He has published four books and more than 100 articles on law and dispute resolution. His most recent book, "The Art of Impasse-Breaking in Meditation," was published by the American Bar Association in 2025.[11]
Personal life
Hoffman is married to Leslie Warner; they have five children.[12][13] From 2007 to 2009, he served as president of Kerem Shalom, a congregation in Concord, Massachusetts.[14]
Awards and honors
2005–present – Listed in Best Lawyers, U.S. News & World Report[15]
2011 – John Adams Fiske Award, Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation[16]
2014 – Lifetime Achievement Award, American College of Civil Trial Mediators[17]
2015 – D’Alemberte-Raven Award, American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution[18]
2018 – Professor Frank E.A. Sander Award in Dispute Resolution, Massachusetts Bar Association[19]
2021 – Founders Award, Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council[20]
2023 – Family Mediation Lifetime Achievement Award, Academy of Professional Family Mediators[21][22]
