St. John’s Law Mourns the Loss of Professor Elayne E. Greenberg

April 22, 2024

Dean Michael A. Simons and the entire Law School community mourn the passing of Elayne E. Greenberg, Professor of Legal Practice and Director of the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution. An irrepressibly positive force, she enriched St. John’s Law and the wider profession as she taught the value and practice of conflict resolution, modeled what it means to be a community builder, and produced outstanding scholarship in the field.

Professor Greenberg came to St. John’s in 2007, started as Director of the Carey Center in 2009, and became a Professor of Legal Practice in 2010, bringing unmatched experience as a mediator and conflict management consultant who educated, wrote, and presented on dispute resolution processes, ethics, and advocacy. Among other innovative programs and initiatives, she developed a Bankruptcy Mediation Training Program in collaboration with the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI); the Ghana Mediation Training Program that helped to implement the Ghana ADR Act; and the Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon, an annual student negotiation, mediation, and arbitration competition that the Law School presents with FINRA.

As a noted scholar, Professor Greenberg focused on dispute resolution’s broad applicability in multiple contexts, taking an interdisciplinary approach to exploring conflict etiology to help design more pragmatic interventions. She incorporated that approach in recent works on the intersection of implicit bias and dispute resolution and on informed consent. Along with her scholarly publications, she shared insights gained from her research, teaching, and practice through “Ethical Compass,” a recurring column in the New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer. On campus, Professor Greenberg applied her scholarship connecting dispute resolution and social justice as a Fellow of the Vincentian Center for Church and Society.

While shaping Alternative Dispute Resolution practice, policy, and study in a range of leadership roles, Professor Greenberg earned recognition from her peers. Among other accolades, for nearly 20 consecutive years, she was named one of the top New York lawyers in the ADR field by Best Lawyers in America. She received ABI’s Annual Service Award, the organization’s highest membership honor, and was deemed one of the top three Women in Dispute Resolution and Women of Influence in New York.

With all her well-deserved recognition in the field, Professor Greenberg still derived the most meaning from teaching and advising students, including the student members of the Law School’s Dispute Resolution Society. She kept close ties as her students became lawyers who use dispute resolution processes to achieve excellent outcomes for clients, while respecting the humanity and dignity of all. As Professor Greenberg’s son, St. John’s Law alumnus Carey Alexander ‘12, shared in a note to Dean Simons: “Her work and her students meant the world to her and were an enduring source of strength, purpose, and joy.”

The St. John’s Law community will gather soon for a remembrance event. Until then, may reflections on Professor Greenberg’s life well lived with purpose, meaning, and joy bring comfort to her family, friends, and all who mourn her. May she rest in peace, and may her memory be a blessing.

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