A. A. White Dispute Resolution Center
Fostering Public Awareness & Understanding of Conflict Resolution

The purposes of the A.A. White Dispute Resolution Center are charitable, educational and civic. The Center was organized to foster public awareness and understanding of conflict resolution and the impact of interpersonal disputes on society.

The Center also encourages broader understanding, development and use of alternative means of dispute resolution. One important mission of the Center is to study, analyze and recommend dispute resolution procedures that will provide less costly and more expeditious access to justice.

The Center provides assistance to the courts in encouraging the early settlement of pending litigation. The Center also provides assistance to educational institutions, including law schools, in the development and use of alternative dispute resolution concepts and procedures.

In addition, the Center will assist other organizations whose activities further, accomplish, foster or attain any of these purposes.

The Center was named for Dean A.A. White, the founding Dean of the University of Houston Law Center. Dean White and his wife, Ersie Kern Ator White, established the Ator Award. Judge Frank G. Evans was the 1988 recipient of the Ator Award and designated a portion of the award to the creation and financial support of the Center.

"Thecourts of this country should not be the place where the resolution of disputes begin. They should be the places where the disputes end – after alternative methods of resolving disputes have been considered and tried.”

-Justice Sandra Day O’Connor