Michaela Keet

• LLB (Saskatchewan)
• BA (Saskatchewan)
• LLM (Saskatchewan) 
  

Professor Keet has been involved in curriculum development in the dispute resolution area at every level in the college’s program, including the design of an intensive dispute resolution program for first-year students and advanced courses in Negotiation, Mediation, and clinical placements. In 2011, Prof. Keet was awarded the Provost’s College Award for Outstanding Teaching in Law.

Prof. Keet has extensive experience as a trainer and public speaker on dispute resolution processes and issues, including the development of educational programs for lawyers, judges and other adjudicators and professionals. In addition to her law school teaching, Prof. Keet has delivered presentations and training programs for the following audiences: National Judicial Institute and various courts across the country, Saskatchewan Legal Education Society, Canadian and American Bar Associations, business and human resources professionals, unions, members of local aboriginal governments, and many other organizations.  She is also a faculty member of Osgoode’s specialized LLM in Dispute Resolution, where she teaches a course in Advanced Dispute Resolution. 

Her teaching, research and publications have focused on the evolution of negotiation models and practices as well as other settlement processes.  Her earlier work explored the integration of dispute resolution programs into the court system – in both civil and criminal settings - and the evaluation of dispute resolution practices and programs. She is the author of numerous journal articles on topics including Settlement Counsel and Collaborative Law, lawyers’ roles inside mediation, and the integration of mediation into court systems.

Prof. Keet has worked as a mediator in private and public practice across a variety of settings.  With Saskatchewan Labour, she mediated and conciliated complex labour disputes.  With Saskatchewan Justice, she mediated civil litigation files including matters such as commercial contract disputes, wrongful dismissal and personal injury. Prof. Keet has also acted as a labour arbitrator and as a consultant for organizations designing or evaluating their own dispute resolution processes and systems. In the earlier part of her career, Prof. Keet worked as a lawyer in private practice, with a focus on labour, employment and administrative law.

In 2016, Professor Keet and U of S Law colleague Professor Heather Heavin were awarded the Gonthier Fellowship by the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice. This enabled them to complete and present the results of a project on Litigation Risk Assessment, at the CIAJ 2016 fall conference “Civil Justice and Economics: A Matter of Value”. The paper is available online at  https://ciaj-icaj.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/930.pdf.  Since then, Keet and Heavin have published a series of articles on the topic of Litigation Risk Assessment – including the presentation of a practical framework, and implications for the settlement process, for lawyers, mediators and judges.  

Many of these are available on Professor Keet’s SSRN author page, at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1723623

On the topic of Litigation Risk Assessment:

H. Heavin and M. Keet, “Litigation Risk Analysis: Using Rigorous Projections to Encourage and Inform Settlement”, Journal of Arbitration and Mediation, FORTHCOMING

H. Heavin and M. Keet, “A Spectrum of Tools to Support Litigation Risk Assessment:  Promise and Limitations”, (2017) 15 Canadian Journal of Law and Technology  265

M. Keet, H. Heavin and S. Sparrow, “Anticipating and Managing the Psychological Cost of Civil Litigation,” (2017) 34(1) Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 73

M. Keet, “Informed Decision-Making in Judicial Mediation and the Assessment of Litigation Risk”, (2018) 33(1) Ohio State Journal of Dispute Resolution 65

M. Keet, “Litigation Risk Assessment as a Tool to Enhance Negotiation,” (2017) 19(1) Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution 17

H. Heavin and M. Keet, “Skating to Where the Puck Will Be: Exploring Settlement Counsel and Risk Analysis in the Negotiation of Commercial Disputes” (2013) 76(2) Saskatchewan Law Review

Some other publications: 

M. Keet and B. Cotter, “Lawyers’ Ethical Obligations, Innovative Models of Legal Service and a Time of Regulatory Upheaval: Settlement Counsel as an Instructive Model, (2018) 96 Canadian Bar Review 1

B. Lowenberger, M. Keet & J. Anderson, “Collaborative Policy-Making, Law Students, and Access to Justice: The Rewards of Destabilizing Institutional Patterns,” (2017) 34(1) Windsor Yearbook Access to Justice 148

M. Keet, “Settlement Counsel: An Innovative Strategy for the Principled Management and Resolution of Commercial Litigation Files”, (2017) 95 Canadian Bar Review 357

L. Clark, M. Keet and C. Ryan, “Mediating on the GM Foods Debate: Lessons from the Enduring Conflict Framework”, 11(2) Journal of Food Law & Policy (2015)\

M. Keet and B. Cotter, “Settlement Conferences and Judicial Role: The Scaffolding for Expanded Thinking about Judicial Ethics (2013) 91 Canadian Bar Review

J. Kleefield and M.Keet, “Getting Real: Enhancing the Acquisition of Negotiation Skills Through a Simulated Email Transaction”, (2011) 2 Journal of Arbitration and Mediation 23 (31 pages)

W. Wiegers and M. Keet, “Collaborative Family Law and Gender Inequalities: Balancing Risks and Opportunities” (2008) Osgoode Hall Law Journal 733

M. Keet, W. Wiegers and M. Morrison, “Client Engagement Inside Collaborative Law”, Canadian Journal of Family Law (2008) 24(2) Canadian Journal of Family Law 145

M.  Keet, “The Evolution of Lawyers’ Roles in Mandatory Mediation:  A Condition of Systemic Transformation” (2005) 68(2) Saskatchewan Law Review 313

J. Macfarlane and M. Keet, “Civil Justice Reform and Mandatory Civil Mediation in Saskatchewan:  Lessons from a Maturing Program” (2005) 42(3) Alberta Law Review 677

M. Keet and T. Salamone, “From Litigation to Mediation:  Using Advocacy Skills for Success in Mandatory or Court-Connected Mediation”, Saskatchewan Law Review, Volume 64(1), 2001, 57

M. Keet and T. Salamone, “Getting it Done – A Process Design for Environmental Negotiations”, Natural Resources & Environment (ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources), Volume 16(2), Fall 2001, 122