ADR Faculty

Paul Arshagouni
Paul Arshagouni joined Michigan State University College of Law faculty in Fall 2003 as an assistant professor and director of the Law College’s Health Law program. Previously, he was an assistant research professor at the University of Houston Law Center’s Health Law & Policy Institute, researching various health care related legal and policy issues. Prior to this position, he was an associate with the health care practice group at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood in Los Angeles, California. He also served as an associate in the health care department of Foley & Lardner, also in Los Angeles. Professor Arshagouni had a distinguished career in medicine before entering the legal profession. He served as a physician and assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine. He was also director of pediatrics at a community clinic. At MSU Law, Professor Arshagouni teaches required courses in addition to directing the health law curriculum.

Mary A. Bedikian
Mary A. Bedikian, Professor of Law in Residence and Director, Alternative Dispute Resolution Program at MSU College of Law, is the former District-Vice-President, Detroit Region, of the American Arbitration Association, an organization for which she worked for 28 years. Her extensive experience in ADR spans many sectors - labor, commercial, construction, international, and employment - and includes the training of mediators and arbitrators in both the process and substance of ADR. In 1987, Professor Bedikian created one of the first interactive ADR courses in Michigan, to be taught at various law schools within Michigan. She served as adjunct faculty at both University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and Wayne State University Law School for more than 10 years.

Professor Bedikian is well published. In 1988, she won first prize in the Sixth Annual National Labor Law Writing Competition for her article, "Riding on the Horns of a Dilemma: The Law of Contract Versus the Law of Public Policy." Professor Bedikian also co-authored two practice books in ADR: Michigan Pleading and Practice, Volumes 8A and B (West Services, Inc.), and Michigan Practice Series - ADR (Thomson West).

She was instrumental in creating the ADR Section of the State Bar of Michigan and, in 1999, she received from the Section the Distinguished Service Award in Recognition of Significant Contributions to the Field of Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Ms. Bedikian has acted as mediator in hundreds of cases since 1981, and in 1994 was invited to be part of a special Court of Appeals mediation panel. She has also served as arbitrator in employment cases.

Professor Bedikian received her J.D. from MSU College of Law, where she served on Moot Court.

Michael Dodge
Michael John Dodge is the Vice President and General Counsel of DaimlerChrysler Insurance Company, Associate General Counsel of DaimlerChrysler Services, and adjunct Professor of Negotiation at MSU Law. Mr. Dodge has an extensive background as both a negotiator and a teacher of negotiation. Mr. Dodge was International Counsel for DaimlerChrysler Services from 1995 through 2001 and during that period he created banks’ finance companies, negotiated joint ventures, and was lead counsel in over a dozen M and A projects in Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, Holland, China, Japan, Venezuela, Argentina, and Ireland.

Mr. Dodge has been teaching negotiation for over 10 years. In the 1990s he developed a three-day seminar in negotiation that he has given regularly to law firms, insurance companies, and manufacturing firms. He subsequently developed this seminar into a full law school class, which has been offered for the past four years at MSU College of Law.

Robert McCormick
Professor McCormick served as an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 1973 to 1978 and as counsel to the Honorable Howard Jenkins, Jr., member of the NLRB, in Washington, D.C. From 1978 until 1979, he was assistant director of gift and estate planning for the University of Chicago. In addition to authoring a textbook on sports law, Professor McCormick is a frequent author of articles on labor law and sports law and has appeared in prominent law reviews. He is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators. Professor McCormick joined the Law College faculty in 1979 and served as associate dean from 1986 through 1989. He teaches Labor Law, Constitutional Law, Discrimination in Employment, Sports Law, and Decedents’ Estates and Trusts.

John Reifenberg, Jr.
Prior to joining the faculty in 1978, Professor Reifenberg was an Instructor at Southern Methodist University Law School, and Assistant Professor of Law at Nova University Law School. Professor Reifenberg is the Executive Director of the Center for Canadian-United States Law and Chair of the International and Comparative Law Program at the Law College. He was the author of the 1987 Jessup International Moot Court Problem. During the 1990-91 academic year, Professor Reifenberg was a Fulbright Fellow at Wuhan University Law School in the People's Republic of China. He teaches Torts, International Law, International Business Transactions, and various comparative law courses.

George T. Roumell, Jr.
George T. Roumell, Jr., a senior partner with the Law Firm of Riley, Roumell and Connolly, is an arbitrator and mediator. In addition to his private and court-annexed appointments, Professor Roumell serves on the rosters of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the American Arbitration Association and the Michigan Employment Relations Commission. He served as Law Clerk to the Michigan Supreme Court and, since 1957, has served as adjunct professor of labor law and alternative dispute resolution at Michigan State University College of Law. He is the recipient of three significant awards: the Whitney North Seymour Award for Contributions to the Field of Labor Arbitration (American Arbitration Association - 1990); the Distinguished Service Award (Labor and Employment Law Section - 1999); and, the Robert P. Hudson Award (State Bar of Michigan - 2003).

Professor Roumell is also well published. He has authored Roumell’s Primer on Labor Arbitration (ICLE, Ann Arbor, MI) 7th ed., and served as co-author of, "Absenteeism and the Impact of the Family and Medical Leave Act," Labor Arbitration Institute (2002).

Professor Roumell earned his J.D. from Harvard University and received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from MSU College of Law.