David Alan Hoffman

David Alan Hoffman is an American attorney, mediator, arbitrator, author and academic. He is the John H. Watson, Jr. Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. He is also the founder of Boston Law Collaborative. His TEDx talk on Lawyers as Peacemakers describes his decision to discontinue courtroom advocacy and focus exclusively on mediation, arbitration and Collaborative law.

Early life and education Hoffman grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and graduated from Baltimore City College. He went on to study at Princeton University, where he received a bachelor's degree in English and American Literature in 1970. He then studied at Cornell University (M.A. 1974, American Studies, all but dissertation completed toward Ph.D.) and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1984). He clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for Stephen G. Breyer.

After law school and a year of judicial clerkship, Hoffman joined the Boston law firm Hill & Barlow in 1985, where he served as a litigator in business, family and pro bono cases. In 1988–89, he took a one-year leave of absence from Hill & Barlow to work as staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. He became a partner at Hill & Barlow in 1992 and established an alternative dispute resolution practice group there. and in 2010, the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution gave BLC its annual Law Firm Award for Excellence in ADR.

Hoffman has held numerous leadership positions in the field of alternative dispute resolution and bar association work including being the Chair of the American Bar Association section of Dispute Resolution, the Massachusetts Bar Association section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities and the Boston Bar Association ADR Committee. He has also been the President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution and a Founding Member and Board Member of the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council.

Personal life Hoffman is married to Leslie Warner. They have five children. Hoffman is a member of a jug band, Uncle Jack's Rompin' Stompers, which formed in high school and continues to play old-time music. In 2007–09, Hoffman served as president of his synagogue, Kerem Shalom Congregation, in Concord, Massachusetts.

Awards and honors 2005–present – Best Lawyers, U.S. News & World Report 2011 – John Adams Fiske Award, Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation 2014 – Lifetime Achievement Award, American College of Civil Trial Mediators 2015 – D'Alemberte-Raven Award, ABA Section of Dispute Resolution 2018 – Professor Frank E.A. Sander Award in Dispute Resolution, Massachusetts Bar Association 2021 – Inaugural Founders Award, Massachusetts Collaborative Law