Courtney Chicvak

Courtney Chicvak, Esq., M.S., J.D., is the Director of Alternative Dispute Resolution Training and Development at the Long Island Dispute Resolution Centers (LIDRC), a program of EAC Network and the state-designated Community Dispute Resolution Centers (CDRCs) for Nassau and Suffolk Counties. She supports the design and implementation of court-annexed and community-based mediation programs in partnership with the New York State Unified Court System. Courtney oversees LIDRC’s Basic and Advanced Mediation Trainings, manages volunteer mediators and arbitrators, and supports programs in family, civil, small claims, community, special education, early intervention, ACCES-VR, lemon law, and public accommodations.

Courtney is an International Mediation Institute (IMI) Certified Mediator, an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) through the International Coaching Federation (ICF), a New York State Part 146 Basic Mediation Trainer, and a Senior Family Mediator with the Academy of Professional Family Mediators (APFM). She has mediated hundreds of cases in court-annexed settings, focusing on family, co-parenting, and custody matters, with experience in New York City Family Court and at the New York Peace Institute. Her background includes training as a Guardian ad Litem and service as both a Long-Term Care Ombudsman and a Volunteer Attorney in the Volunteer Attorney Program (VAP) in New York City Family Court. She previously held roles in labor and employment law, including labor union work, healthcare labor relations, and executive escalations in employee relations at Amazon. 

Courtney teaches Conflict Analysis Models and Frameworks at Columbia University, and she also contributes to curriculum development at the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution and the Conflict Intelligence Lab. She also teaches and coaches at institutions including UC Law San Francisco, Yale School of Management, Stanford Law School, Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Abilene Christian University, Grand Canyon University, and the Women in Negotiation (WIN) Summit.

She has worked in more than eight countries and was selected for the Executive Diploma Programme in Cultural Diplomacy, International Relations, and Global Governance (Class of 2025) through the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in partnership with the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy. Her work has been presented at national and regional conferences including the American Bar Association, Association of American Law Schools, New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), Suffolk County Bar Association (SCBA), and the Association for Conflict Resolution of Greater New York (ACR-GNY).

Courtney’s work has appeared in Newsweek, Parents Magazine, Lawline, the ABA TIPS Law Journal, the New York State Dispute Resolution Lawyer Journal, and the Suffolk County Bar Association Law Journal. She serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM), co-chairs the Negotiation Committee for the New York State Bar Association and the ADR Committee for the Suffolk County Bar Association, and mentors students through the Alumnae Leadership Council at St. John’s University School of Law. In 2024, she was recognized as a Long Island Business News Leader in Law. She brings her mission of access to justice and sustainable peace to both her work with Columbia students and her leadership in community-based initiatives.

She holds a B.S. from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, an M.S. from Columbia University’s Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Program, and a J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law. She is admitted to practice law in New York.