David A. Hoffman

David A. Hoffman is a mediator, arbitrator, attorney, and founding member of Boston Law Collaborative, LLC.

David is listed in the book “The Best Lawyers in America” in five categories (Mediation, Arbitration, Collaborative Law – Civil, Collaborative Law - Family, and Family Law Mediation). He was named Boston's "Lawyer of the Year" in Collaborative Law in 2014, in Mediation for 2016, in Arbitration in 2018, and again in Mediation for 2020. He has been named a Massachusetts ‘Super Lawyer’ each year since the listing began.

David teaches three courses at Harvard Law School, where he is the John H. Watson Jr. Lecturer on Law: Mediation; Diversity and Dispute Resolution; and Legal Profession: Collaborative Law

As mediator and arbitrator, he has handled more than 1,000 cases involving family, business, employment, and other disputes. David’s cases range from divorces to complex litigation matters involving Fortune 500 companies.

David is past chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, and currently co-chairs the Section’s Collaborative Law Committee. He is a Distinguished Fellow in the International Academy of Mediators. He is also past chair of the Boston Bar Association’s ADR Committee and past president of the New England chapter of the Association of Conflict Resolution.

David has received a number of awards for his dispute resolution work, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American College of Civil Trial Mediators and the D’Alemberte-Raven Award from the American Bar Association’s Section of Dispute Resolution.

David has published three books – “Bringing Peace into the Room: How the Personal Qualities of the Mediator Impact the Process of Conflict Resolution” (Jossey Bass 2003, with co-editor Daniel Bowling); “Massachusetts Alternative Dispute Resolution” (Butterworth Legal Publishers 1994, with co-author David Matz); and “Mediation: A Practice Guide for Mediators, Lawyers, and Other Professionals” (Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education 2013). He has also published more than 75 articles / book chapters on law and dispute resolution.

David’s firm, Boston Law Collaborative, is the winner of two national awards – the ABA’s Lawyer as Problem Solver Award, and the Law Firm Award for Excellence in ADR from the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution.

Prior to founding Boston Law Collaborative, David was a litigation partner at the Boston firm Hill & Barlow, where he practiced for 17 years.

David is a graduate of Princeton University (A.B. 1970, summa cum laude), Cornell University (M.A. 1974, American Studies), and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1984, magna cum laude), where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

David lives in a cohousing community in Acton, Massachusetts, with his wife Leslie Warner. He has three adult children and an adolescent cat.