WJCF Board Chair and Co-Founder, Judge Dorothy Nelson of the Ninth Circuit Federal
Court of Appeals was recently featured as a "Law Star" on the Law-Crossing
website.

" Judge Dorothy Nelson has set the legal world ablaze, excelling in a number of different
areas of law. However, she didn't originally plan to make a career in the legal field. Her
decision to go into law happened unexpectedly and was motivated by a desire to help
others."

In 1985, Nelson and a group of attorneys and judges established the Western Justice
Center Foundation. The initial plan was to make use of the bungalows adjoining the 9th
Circuit Courthouse in Pasadena and place tenants there that would be compatible to the
courthouse.

"When the bungalows we were in were designated surplus property in 1985, and Chief
Judge [James R.] Browning asked Judge [Anthony M.] Kennedy [now a U.S. Supreme Court
Justice] to come up with ideas for compatible tenants, the idea for the Western Justice
Center Foundation was born," she said. "Judge Kennedy went off to Washington, D.C.; and I
asked a group of prominent lawyers and judges to join me in forming a nonprofit corporation
called the Western Justice Center Foundation to develop a research center to promote
peaceful resolution of conflict among children, courts, community and government."

Nelson said that when she was a dean at USC Law School, she had always wanted to
develop such a center in the western part of the United States.

"In the words of former Chief Justice Burger, litigation is fine for some cases, but to think it
is appropriate for all cases is a mistake," she said. "Our adversary system is too costly, too
inefficient, too painful, and too destructive for a civilized society."

Since its founding, the Western Justice Center Foundation has developed a number of
programs designed to teach peaceful conflict resolution to children, youth, parents, teachers, administrators and community members. Included among these programs are the Children's Workshop, Models of Unity Program, Court Workshops, Peer Mediation Invitational and
Creative Classroom Management, which Nelson said is "for K-6 teachers to infuse conflict
resolution education throughout the curriculum and to maximize child-centered problem
solving."

Recently, the Foundation collaborated with the Pasadena Police Department and the Los
Angeles County Bar Association Dispute Resolution Services to launch a mediation and
dialogue program designed to improve relationships between the police department and
the community. The program provides an opportunity for citizens and members of the
Pasadena Police Department to engage in open dialogue through mediation sessions. It
combines individual mediations of citizen complaints against the police and larger dialogues
between community members and members of the Pasadena Police Department.

"It is tremendously rewarding to help people and groups resolve conflict of all kinds through consultation, mediation, and dialogue," said Nelson, whose goal is "to always have a win-
win situation rather than a win-lose situation."

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