David Alan Hoffman (born 1947) is an American lawyer, mediator, arbitrator, author, and academic. He is the John H. Watson Jr. Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. He is also the founder of the Boston Law Collaborative, a law and dispute resolution firm.
Hoffman grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and graduated from Baltimore City College. He earned a bachelor's degree in English and American literature from Princeton University in 1970, a master's degree in American Studies from Cornell University in 1974, and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1984. He clerked for Judge Stephen G. Breyer on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
In 1991, Hoffman trained as an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association, and as a mediator in 1992 with the Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution. In 2000, he completed Collaborative Law training with the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council.
Following his clerkship, Hoffman joined the Boston law firm Hill & Barlow in 1985, becoming a partner in 1992 and founding its alternative dispute resolution practice group. He also took a one-year leave to work as staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (1988âÂÂ1989). After Hill & Barlow dissolved, he co-founded The New Law Center in 2002, focusing on non-adversarial law and mediation.
In 2003, Hoffman founded the Boston Law Collaborative (BLC), a law and dispute resolution firm that received the American Bar AssociationâÂÂs Lawyer as Problem Solver Award in 2009 and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and ResolutionâÂÂs Law Firm Award for Excellence in ADR in 2010.
Hoffman has served in leadership roles within several professional organizations, including Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, Chair of the Massachusetts Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, and Chair of the Boston Bar Association ADR Committee. He has also been President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution and a founding board member of the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council.
Hoffman is married to Leslie Warner; they have five children. From 2007 to 2009, he served as president of Kerem Shalom, a congregation in Concord, Massachusetts.