Professor Katsh is a graduate of the Yale Law School and has authored three books on law and technology, Law in a Digital World (Oxford University Press, 1995) The Electronic Media and the Transformation of Law (Oxford University Press, 1989), and, with Professor Rifkin, Online Dispute Resolution: Resolving Conflicts in Cyberspace (2001). His articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Legal Forum, and other law reviews and legal periodicals. His work has been the subject of a Review Essay in Law and Social Inquiry (Summer 2002).
Since 1996, Professor Katsh has been involved in a series of activities related to online dispute resolution. He participated in the Virtual Magistrate project and was founder and co-director of the Online Ombuds Office. In 1997, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, he and Professor Rifkin founded the Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts. In 2001, he received a grant from the Markle Foundation to improve accessibility to domain name dispute rulings. Currently, Professor Katsh is co-principal investigator with Professors Lee Osterweil and Norman Sondheimer of the Department of Computer Science of a three year National Science Foundation grant "Process Technology for Achieving Government Online Dispute Resolution" to research efforts of the National Mediation Board to employ online dispute resolution.
From 1997-1999, Professor Katsh mediated a variety of disputes online, involving domain name/trademark issues, other intellectual property conflicts, disputes with Internet Service Providers, and others. In the Spring of 1999, he supervised a project with the online auction site eBay, in which over 150 disputes were mediated during a two week period. During the Summer of 1999, he co-founded Disputes.org, which later worked with eResolution to become one of four providers accredited by ICANN to resolve domain name disputes. He is also an adviser to SquareTrade.com, an Internet start-up focusing on online ADR.
Professor Katsh chaired the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Expert Group on ODR and coordinated the 2002 and 2003 UNECE Online Dispute Resolution Conferences and the 2004 and 2006 ODR Forums in Melbourne and Cairo that were held in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission on Asia and the Pacific. He has been Visiting Professor of Law and Cyberspace at Brandeis University, is on the Board of Advisors of the Democracy Design Workshop, serves on the legal advisory board of the InSites E-governance and Civic Engagement Project. and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Professor Katsh was selected to deliver the first of the 2006-2007 Distinguished Faculty Lectures sponsored by the UMass Amherst Chancellor's and Provost's offices.
