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Peter Thompson

B.A., DePauw University
J.D., University of Michigan School of Law

Resume

Areas of legal expertise: Trial evidence & procedure, criminal law, ADR

Professor Thompson has been a consultant and special master to the U.S. District Court in numerous cases, including the Reserve Mining environmental law case and the Consolidated Dalkon Shield and Searle Copper Seven IUD cases. His expertise in the areas of evidence and criminal law is reflected in his published works and research. Thompson has written a major treatise, Minnesota Practice: Evidence. He also has coauthored books on class action suits and courtroom practice, and has done extensive research and publication relating to mediation within the context of a litigated dispute.

Professor Thompson has served as Dean at Hamline University School of Law and as University Ombudsperson. Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Thompson was the reporter for the Minnesota Supreme Court Advisory Committee for Uniform Rules of Evidence. He was a law clerk for two federal district court judges and a faculty member at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.

He served as chair of the Minnesota Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules of Evidence and was chair of the Minnesota Supreme Court Committee for Professional Responsibility in Continuing Education programs. He is a frequent lecturer at CLE programs and is a member of the Academy of Court Appointed Masters.

Professor Thompson teaches Criminal Law, Evidence, Civil Procedure, and Seminars on the American Jury and on ADR policy.

Selected Publications

• Minnesota Trial Objections, (2008) (with David Herr)
• Mediation Litigation Trends 1997-2007, 2 World Arb. and Med. Review 395 (2007) (with James R. Coben)
• MEDIATION LAW POLICY & PRACTICE (2007)(with JAMES COBEN & SARA COLE).
• Mediation Case Law Review, Part II, 2 WORLD ARB. & MEDIATION REV. 415 (2007)(with James R. Coben).
• Disputing Irony:  A Systematic Look at Litigation About Mediation, 11 Harv. Negot. Law Rec. 43 (2006) (with James Coben). 
• Enforcing Rights Generated in Court-Connected Mediation - Tension Between the Aspirations of a Private Facilitative Process and the Reality of Public Adversarial Justice, 19 OHIO ST. J. ON DISP. RESOL. 509 (2004). PDF
• Judicial Toleration of Racial Bais in the Minnesota Justice System, 25 Hamline L. Rev. 236 (2002) (with William Martin).
• EVIDENCE (Minnesota Practice series) (West, 3d ed., 2001; 2d ed. 1992; 1st ed. 1979; and annual supplements).
• The Haghighi Trilogy and the Minnesota Civil Mediation Act: Exposing a Phantom Menace Casting a Pall Over the Development of ADR in Minnesota, 21 HAMLINE J. PUB. L. & POL’Y 299 (1999) (with James R. Coben). PDF
• Confidentiality, Competency and Confusion: the Uncertain Promise of the Mediation Privilege in Minnesota, 18 HAMLINE J. PUB. L. & POL’Y 329 (1997). PDF
• COURTROOM HANDBOOK OF MINNESOTA EVIDENCE (West, 1996 and annual editions) (ed., with David F. Herr).
• Fair and Impartial Jury - Catch as Catch Can, 31 ST. LOUIS U. L.J. 191 (1987). PDF
• Challenge to the Decisionmaking Process - Federal Rule of Evidence 606(b) and the Constitutional Right to a Fair Trial, 38 SW. L.J. 1187 (1985). PDF
• Effect of Legal Education upon Perceptions of Crime Seriousness: A Response to Rummel v. Estelle, 28 WAYNE L. REV. 1247 (1982) (with Joshua Dressler & Stanley Wasserman). PDF
• A CLASS ACTION SUIT THAT WORKED: THE CONSUMER REFUND IN THE ANTIBIOTIC ANTITRUST LITIGATION (Lexington, 1978) (with Thomas C. Bartsh et. al.).
• Presumptions and the New Rules of Evidence in Minnesota, 2 WM. MITCHELL L. REV. 167 (1976). PDF