About Thomas J.
Thomas J. Stipanowich combines an architectural undergraduate and master's education with a law degree to build a career focused on dispute resolution. He earned a B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1974 and a Master of Architecture there in 1976. He later completed his J.D. at the University of Illinois College of Law in 1980.
He moved quickly into practice and dispute work after law school. Beginning in 1981 he served as an independent arbitrator and mediator. In 1984 he joined the University of Kentucky College of Law as the William L. Matthews Professor of Law, teaching and writing about arbitration and related topics. In 2001 he took the helm of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, known as CPR, serving as its president and chief executive officer and overseeing a national program on alternative dispute resolution.
In 2006 he accepted an academic chair at Pepperdine University School of Law, becoming the William H. Webster Chair in Dispute Resolution and a professor of law. That post tied his scholarship and classroom work to a law school with a growing program in mediation and arbitration. In 2019 he took on a role at JAMS as a mediator and arbitrator, adding a national forum for resolving commercial and construction disputes to his academic responsibilities.
His work sits at the intersection of commercial arbitration, construction law, and mediation practice. He is a founding member of the College of Commercial Arbitrators and has been a fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers since the mid-1990s. He belongs to the American College of Civil Trial Mediators and holds fellowship in the American Bar Foundation. Professional memberships also include the International Bar Association and state bar associations in Kentucky, Georgia and Illinois.
Peers have recognized him through roles in Inns of Court and professional groups. He serves as an Honorary Master of the Inn for the Justice Marie L. Garibaldi American Inn of Court for Alternative Dispute Resolution and has held leadership and advisory positions in organizations that set standards for arbitration and mediation practice.
He continues to teach, write and take cases as an arbitrator and mediator. His current work combines academic duties at Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law and private dispute resolution through JAMS, concentrating on arbitration, mediation and related courtroom-adjacent processes.
