Sheila Heen

I have been teaching at Harvard Law School since 1995, in the Negotiation course and several of the Executive Education courses, including the Advanced HNI course and the Master Class. I specialize in particularly challenging conversations – where there is strong disagreement and emotions run high.  I am a co-author of Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, (Penguin, 2nd ed. 2010, with Douglas Stone & Bruce Patton), which is based in part on what we have learned working with students and professionals on their real life challenges in the EASE exercise.

Doug Stone and I have spent the last few years working on the challenges of receiving feedback.  Particularly for high achievers, seeing ourselves accurately and taking in others’ suggestions, complaints, criticisms (even compliments) can be complicated. We have all kinds of reactions—not just to what they’re saying (“that’s not true”), but also to who is giving us feedback (“they’re one to talk”), and where, when, why and how they are offering it. Yet honest feedback from others is essential to learning and continuous improvement, particularly in Negotiation.  This is a central challenge in the Negotiation Workshop and also the subject of Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well (Even When It Is Off-Base, Unfair, Poorly Delivered, and Frankly, You’re Not in the Mood) (Penguin 2015). How can you accelerate your learning in this class, and to continue to build your negotiation skills for the rest of your career and your life?

I am also a Founder of Triad Consulting Group, a Cambridge firm which works with executives and organizations to build their capacity to engage their most important conversations, strengthen working relationships and improve decision-making. In addition to corporate clients like Pixar, Novartis, the NBA, Amex, the Federal Reserve Bank, Tatweer of Dubai, and Standard Bank of South Africa, I have also provided training for the Singapore Supreme Court, assisted Greek and Turkish Cypriots grappling with the conflict that divides their island, and spent nine hours locked in a room with six theologians, discussing their differences on the nature of truth and God. I’ve now got that all figured out.

I have appeared on NPR, the G. Gordon Liddy show, CNBC PowerLunch, Fox News, and Oprah, and have spoken at Google, Apple and Microsoft. My articles, cases, and book chapters on negotiation have appeared in publications as diverse as the Negotiation Journal and Real Simple magazine, Fortune, the Harvard Business Review, and the New York Times Modern Love column. I received my BA from Occidental College in Los Angeles, and my JD from Harvard Law School. My husband also teaches negotiation, currently at MIT’s Sloan School of Business, and we are schooled in negotiation daily by our three children.

Nerd of the year:  I still have my 1L negotiation journal.

Morgan Franklin

Morgan is the Clinical Fellow at HNMCP, supporting the work of various dispute resolution student groups and working on special projects for the program

Her interest in dispute resolution and negotiation stems from an interest in cognitive and behavioral science paired with her belief in the field’s importance in addressing seemingly intractable societal challenges. Since her involvement with negotiation theory as a student she’s been able to experience how transformative gaining the skill set taught by the clinic can be, both professionally and personally.

Morgan graduated from Tulane University with a B.A. in Political Economy and is originally from Shreveport, Louisiana. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2017. As a law student she was fortunate to take classes related to problem solving in various contexts, from administrative organizations to direct services.

After law school Morgan completed a fellowship in Baltimore focusing on health policy and most recently worked at Convergence, Center for Policy Resolution, on a team that sought to aid the path to effective reentry for the recently incarcerated by convening groups with divergent views and facilitating dialogue between them to identify workable policy solutions.

Neil McGaraghan

I am a Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program, where I focus on the Clinic’s political dialogue initiative and co-host the Thanks for Listening podcast.  I am a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, teaching both the Negotiation Workshop and the Facilitation Workshop.

I have been a litigator in Boston for almost twenty years, most recently as the founding Boston partner of Potomac Law Group.  Prior to Potomac, I was a Partner at Bingham McCutchen and Morgan Lewis, & Bockius.  In addition to handling complex disputes in federal and state courts, administrative bodies, arbitration, and meditation, I have had an active pro bono practice, including representing twelve men wrongfully accused and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, and serving as a cooperating attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts (where I also was on the Board of Directors).

I am a graduate of Brown (A.B. 1991) and UC Hastings (J.D. 1999).  Before law school I spent two years in Brussels working at the Commission of the European Union, and then served as a legislative aide to U.S. Senator Patrick J. Leahy.

I live in Lexington with my wife Amy and our kids Jack (17), Leo (15), and Lucy (12).  I am an avid youth hockey, cross-country and track fan, a novice triathlete, and a community facilitator for programs offered by the Lexington Public Library.

Deanna Parrish

I am a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and a Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program. Before coming to HNMCP, I most recently  worked as the Principal Consultant of CMA Consulting Group, an international firm based in Melbourne, Australia that offers strategic consulting and corporate education on dispute resolution and negotiation to clients across the Asia-Pacific region. While in Australia, I also designed and taught courses on negotiation and mediation at Monash University Faculty of Law.

Prior to joining CMA, I practiced as litigation associate with the law firm of Arnold & Porter, where I assisted a wide variety of clients in resolving commercial disputes and international matters. I also served as a Legal Fellow with the Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR), mediating disputes in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

I have been lucky to live, work, and study throughout Africa, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. I received my B.A. in International & Area Studies and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, summa cum laude, from Washington University in St. Louis, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. My writing has appeared in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review. I am a certified mediator and member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Doug Stone

I am a founder of Triad Consulting Group and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, where I have taught for almost 30 years.

Through Triad, I’ve consulted to a wide range of organizations, including Honda, HP, Merck, Ropes & Gray, and Time Warner, and I’ve lectured at Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Pixar. I’ve worked with journalists in South Africa, diplomats at the former Organization of African Unity, police and community leaders in Springfield, MA, and doctors at UN/AIDS and W.H.O. I’ve also worked with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, Teach for America, the Ford Foundation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the State Department, the Department of Justice, and the White House. I’ve lectured at Birzeit University in Ramallah, at Kashmir University in Srinagar, and was a Wexner Scholar in Jerusalem. In 1999, Sheila Heen and I were on Oprah.

I am co-author of Difficult Conversations (2nd ed. 2010), which has been translated into 25 languages and is a New York Times business bestseller. I am also co-author of New York Times bestseller Thanks for the Feedback (2014).  My articles on negotiation and conflict management have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Rotman Management Magazine, Educational Leadership, and the New York Times.

I graduated from Brown in 1980 and Harvard Law School in 1984. Prior to returning to Harvard, I practiced transactional and regulatory banking law at firms in Boston and New York. There are rumors that I was asked to write for Beavis and Butthead, Conan, and Jon Stewart, but seriously, how could these be true?

Gillien Todd

I have been a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School since 2001 and was recently appointed as a lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. When I am not teaching, I consult to organizations on team effectiveness and communication, and coach executives on their hardest conversations.

My private-sector experience includes teaching negotiation and difficult conversations workshops – mostly as a consultant with Triad Consulting – for executives across the U.S. in a variety of industries including biotech, financial services, retail, medicine and pharmaceuticals. In addition, I teach leadership programs for managers at Harvard University and communication workshops for doctors at Mass General Hospital and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Most recently I have worked as a coach, facilitator, and consultant in a variety of contexts, including coaching doctors, strategic planning with a surgery department, and developing executive teams at a local bank and independent school.

In the public sector, I have helped a regional symphony orchestra with their contract negotiations, facilitated contract negotiations between a teachers’ union and a school board, assisted with problem-solving among 30 state-based gun control organizations, and led a long-term collaboration—between Boston-area prosecutors, police, nurses and advocates—aimed at improving services for victims of sexual assault. In addition, I have taught workshops in leadership and conflict resolution to cadets at The Citadel as part of that institution’s historic transition to coeducation.

I’m a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Yale University. Before graduate school I spent two years working and traveling in Asia. For the past 10 years, I have participated in the Pan Mass Challenge, a 161-mile cycling fundraiser for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. I live in Cambridge with my husband, Kingsley, my seventeen-year-old Will, and thirteen-year-old twins Charlie and Chloe.