Giuseppe De Palo

Facilitator, Trainer and Mediator

A teacher and scholar whose writings have been translated into more than 20 languages, Giuseppe has trained professionals on every continent to engage conflict with curiosity and cultural awareness. Spending seven years inside the United Nations, working to prevent and resolve workplace conflict among staff serving global missions, shaped his practice in ways no classroom or courtroom could. That experience, together with advisory work for governments and parliaments from Brussels to Kabul to Mexico City, informs the way he works today: with perspective, cultural fluency and a steady approach to conflicts that require patience and careful attention to context.

Conflict is universal. But the way a culture understands it, buries it or transforms it—that is everything. When you change that, you change what's possible.

At JAMS Pathways, Giuseppe focuses on how people and organizations understand and deal with conflict at a systemic level. Drawing on nearly three decades of work across almost 70 countries, he supports organizations, institutions and governments in building lasting capacity for dialogue—from addressing a single intractable dispute to evolving how an institution approaches disagreement over time.

Career Experience
  • Ombudsman, United Nations Funds and Programmes, 2015–2022
  • International Professor of Alternative Dispute Resolution Law and Practice, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, 2002–2021
  • Board Member, JAMS International, 2011–2015
  • Chairman, Board of Directors, ADR Center, 1998–2015
  • Associate, Wilmer Hale, 1996–1997
  • Junior Lieutenant, Guardia di Finanza (Italian tax police), 1992–1993
Background & Education
  • Ombudsman Masterclass, International Ombudsman Association, 2016
  • Advanced Mediation Seminar, JAMS, 2001, 2004, 2009, 2011
  • Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School, 1999, 2007, 2019
  • LL.M., International Dispute Resolution, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, 1995
  • Certificate in International Trade Law, International Training Center of the ILO, Turin, Italy, 1994
  • Master’s Degree (equivalent), maxima cum laude, Political Sciences and Administration, University of Urbino, Urbino, Italy, 1994
  • J.D., maxima cum laude, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, 1991
Insights & Publications
1 of 4

Textbooks

    • EU Mediation Law and Practice, edited with Mary B. Trevor, Oxford University Press, 2012
    • Venturing Beyond the Classroom, Volume 2 in the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching Series, edited with C. Honeyman and J. Coben, DRI Press, 2010
    • Manuale del mediatore professionista, with Leonardo D’Urso and Dwight Golann, Giuffrè, 2010
    • Rethinking Negotiating Teaching, edited with C. Honeyman and J. Coben, DRI Press, 2009
    • Arbitration and Mediation in the Southern Mediterranean Countries, edited with Mary B. Trevor, Kluwer Law International, 2007
    • Manuale del conciliatore professionista, with Leonardo D’Urso and Dwight Golann, Giuffrè, 2004
    • La risoluzione alternativa delle controversie nelle corti federali degli Stati Uniti, with Guido Guidi, Giuffrè, 1999

Research studies (published as lead author)

    • “A Ten-Year-Long ‘EU Mediation Paradox’ – When an EU Directive Needs to Be More … Directive,” European Parliament, Directorate General for Internal Policies, 2018
    • “Achieving a Balanced Relationship Between Mediation and Judicial Proceedings,” European Parliament, Directorate General for Internal Policies, 2016
    • “Mediation as Alternative Dispute Resolution: The Functioning of Directive 52/2008/EC,” European Parliament, Directorate General for Internal Policies, 2015
    • “Rebooting the Mediation Directive: Assessing the Limited Impact of Its Implementation and Proposing Measures to Increase the Number of Mediations in the EU,” European Parliament, Directorate General for Internal Policies, 2014
    • “Quantifying the Costs of Not Using Mediation – A Data Analysis,” European Parliament, Directorate General for Internal Policies, 2011

Recent law review articles

    • “Not Enough of a Good Thing: Unleashing the Full Power of Mediation Globally,” Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2025
    • “Mediating Mediation Itself: the Easy-opt-out Model Settles the Perennial Dispute Between Voluntary and Mandatory Mediation,” Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2021
Work Vision
Work Vision
To make conflict resolution a foundational human capability—built into organizations and institutions before crisis hits, not summoned after 
 
Values
Values

Cultural humility, systemic thinking and the belief that meaningful progress begins when people feel heard and understood 

Areas of Focus
Areas of Focus

Cross-cultural and international mediation, conflict systems design, organizational and workplace conflict, ESG and multi-stakeholder disputes, negotiation education and professional training 


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