Haavi Morreim, JD, PhD

Haavi Morreim, JD, PhD, is an experienced mediator with a distinctive perspective. Although she is a medical school professor (University of Tennessee) focusing on health law and bioethics, she is not ensconced in an office and her work is not the usual courses-in-classrooms. Rather, Dr. Morreim works in the clinical rounds and conferences during which faculty and physicians-in-training discuss patients, make medical decisions, and explore broader issues—from the operating room to the E.R, from the I.C.U. To the outpatient office, and from the perspective of physicians, nurses, patients, families, and allied providers. This has permitted a first-hand view of day-to-day challenges arising for patients, families, physicians, nurses, and others in healthcare. Conflict is pervasive in healthcare systems that now require intense interdependence among diverse professionals. Embedded in healthcare for 35 years, Dr. Morreim sees adverse outcomes and in-house clashes long before they become potential lawsuits. Dr. Morreim teaches 3-day intensive courses on conflict resolution to healthcare professionals, and likewise teaches in mediation courses for attorneys and others to become mediators for the courts. As a mediator Dr. Morreim understands that in healthcare, the goal is often to preserve and improve relationships, not dissolve them. Hence she helps parties to collaborate productively to solve problems. Dr. Morreim is Vice-Chair of the ABA's Task Force on ADR and Conflict Management in Health Care, and is Vice-Chair of the AHLA Affinity Group on Dispute Resolution. She has served on numerous medical staff committees, including Peer Review, Morbidity and Mortality, Operative and Invasive Procedures, Safety Operations, Quality Improvement, and Infection Control. Dr. Morreim has authored two books and one hundred fifty articles in journals of law, medicine, and bioethics, and has presented hundreds of invited lectures nationally and internationally.