Kansas Lawyer Helps Rewrite Jordan’s ADR Laws in ABA Project
A Kansas lawyer traveled to Jordan for three months to help teach alternative dispute resolution through the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative.
Lawrence lawyer Kathy Kirk of Lawrence helped teach lawyers and judges about ADR, and helped rewrite the laws to allow judges to order the procedure, the Lawrence Journal-World & News reports. The ABA provided her with an apartment and offices in Amman and a staff to help her.
The ABA program began as a response to concerns about Jordan’s overburdened court system.
Kirk told the newspaper that mediation is relatively new in Jordan, and not all lawyers accept it. But she thinks that will change.
“The Jordan bar is still a little resistant, but it didn’t feel much different to me than the Kansas Bar Association was in the early 1990s,” she said.
