ROBERT C. BORDONE (Bob) is an internationally recognized expert, bestselling author, speaker, and teacher in negotiation, conflict resolution, mediation, and facilitation, selected in 2025 as one of the Top 30 Negotiation Professionals in the world by Global Gurus.  A Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School and the Founder and Principal of The Cambridge Negotiation Institute, he served on the full-time faculty at Harvard Law School for more than 20 years as the Thaddeus R. Beal Clinical Professor of Law, Director, and Founder of the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program before launching his consulting practice. He is the Director of the Consensus Building Institute Professional Development Academy and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Bob has also been Visiting Professor at Boston University School of Theology. 

As a professional facilitator and conflict resolution consultant, Bob works with individual, nonprofit, governmental, and corporate clients across many sectors. He specializes in assisting individuals and groups seeking to manage conflicts in highly sensitive, emotional, or difficult situations. He has also trained professionals from virtually every governmental, corporate, educational, and non-profit sector in skills of negotiation, conflict resolution, and handling challenging conversations. 

His clients have included major law firms such as Clifford Chance, LLP, Shearman & Sterling, LLP, & Weil, Gotshal LLP; corporations such as Microsoft, Delta Airlines, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Heineken, PwC, Google, The Gap, Shell Oil, Fidelity Investments, YouTube, Exelon, Edwards Lifesciences, Novo Nordisk, Intel, PwC, KPMG, and Eisai; governmental bodies such as the U.S. Department of Justice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Swiss Foreign Ministry, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and the International Criminal Court; and non-profits such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB), the United Way, Everytown for Gun Safety, YPO, the American Friends Service Committee, the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and Beth Israel Lahey Health. 

At Harvard Law School, Bob led the school’s flagship Negotiation Workshop, more than doubling its enrollment. He also developed several new classes at Harvard including an Advanced Workshop on Multiparty Negotiation and Group Decision-Making and a Facilitation Workshop. He continues to teach negotiation for the Harvard Center for Workplace Development and at Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education and Professional and Executive Development. 

During his career Bob has received many awards for teaching, research, and innovation. These include The Albert Sacks-Paul Freund Teaching Award at Harvard Law School, presented annually to a single member of the Harvard Law School faculty for teaching excellence, mentorship of students, and general contributions to the life of the Law School. The International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution’s (CPR) awarded Bob its Problem Solving in the Law School Curriculum Award for his innovative work in creating and building the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program.  Four graduating classes of Harvard Law School selected him to deliver a Last Lecture prior to their graduation, a recognition reserved for only four faculty members each year. 

Bob is the co-author of three books: the USA Today Bestseller Conflict Resilience: Negotiating Disagreement Without Giving Up or Giving In, (HarperCollins, 2025), Designing Systems and Processes for Managing Disputes, 2d. Edition (Wolters-Kluwer, 2019) and The Handbook of Dispute Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2005). He has also published articles in leading business and dispute resolution journals including the HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, the HARVARD LAW REVIEW, the HARVARD NEGOTIATION LAW REVIEW, the OHIO STATE JOURNAL ON DISPUTE RESOLUTION, the JOURNAL OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION, NEGOTIATION BRIEFINGS, DISPUTE RESOLUTION MAGAZINE, and NEGOTIATION JOURNAL. Bob has been a featured guest on more than 50 podcasts and his writing and commentary have appeared in various print and broadcast media outlets including CNBC, NBC NEWS, THE BOSTON GLOBE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, AMERICA, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, CNN’S Situation Room, NPR’s COGNOSCENTI, THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER, and BBC Radio.  

Bob has served on a variety of advisory boards that include the Dartmouth College Center for 

Social Impact, the Systemic Justice Project at Harvard Law School, and the Harvard Law School Mediation Program.  He has been an Associate Editor of the Negotiation Journal and a member of its Editorial Advisory Board, as well as a member of the Program on Negotiation Executive Committee, and the faculty adviser to the Harvard Mediation Program, the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, and Harvard Negotiators. Bob was the Catholic Engagement Coordinator for Pete Buttigieg’s campaign for the Presidency in 2020.  

Bob currently serves on the Board of Directors for Seeds of Peace, on the Advisory Board for the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, on the Pastoral Council of The Paulist Center in Boston, on the Executive Committee of The Communion Project of the Paulist Fathers, on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Empathy in International Affairs, and as Senior Advisor to the National Institute for Civil Discourse.

After graduating from law school, Bob clerked for The Honorable George A. O’Toole, Jr. of the United States District Court for Massachusetts.  In addition to his many years at Harvard Law 

School, Bob also worked at Crowell & Moring, LLP in Washington, DC, Cravath, Swaine, & Moore, LLP in New York City, CBS News, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Boston Consulting Group. 

Bob earned his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and his A.B., summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College where he majored in Government. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) with the handle @bobbordone, on his YouTube channel, https://tinyurl.com/3kvtpvhu, or on his website: www.bobbordone.com or at www.conflictresiliencebook.com.