California Lawyer of the Year Award Recipients Announced

Noll and Kaufer established Prison of Peace in 2009 after Susan Russo, an inmate serving a life term, suggested that the development of mediation skills might lead to a reduction in prison violence. The program, which officially began in 2010, provides inmates at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, California with communication, mediation, and peacekeeping skills.

Through the program, many inmates have gained a greater understanding of their own emotions and the emotions of those they come in contact with. Prison of Peace teaches inmates how to re-establish accountability for their own actions and how to assist others in the same process. Graduates of the program have the skills to de-escalate and resolve conflicts, thereby bringing greater peace to the prison as a whole.


“Since the start of the Prison of Peace program the institution appears quieter and with less violence,” asserts Warden Walter Miller.

With assistance from Noll and Kaufer, some inmates have undergone a year-long training program to become Prison of Peace instructors themselves. In 2010 the Southern California Mediation Association Cloke/Millen Peacemaker of the Year Award was presented to the first 15 women to complete the peacemaker and mediator training.

Noll, who specializes in complex and intractable conflicts, was one of the first US mediators to receive certification under the international mediator standards developed by the International Mediation Institute. He spent 22 years as a business and commercial trial lawyer and currently serves as an adjunct professor of law. He is also a founding board member of Mediators without Borders and the President of the California Dispute Resolution Council.

Additionally, Noll is a Fellow of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators, a Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, a Diplomat of the California and National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, a faculty member of the American Institute of Mediation, and an American Arbitration Association Arbitration and Mediation Panel Member. He authored the book Elusive Peace: How Modern Diplomatic Strategies Could Better Resolve World Conflicts (Prometheus, 2011), which received the international peace and book justice award.

Noll earned his JD from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. He holds a MA in Peacekeeping and Conflict Studies from Fresno Pacific University and a BA in English Literature from Dartmouth College.

Kaufer, a mediator and arbitrator with ARC moved from litigation to neutral practice in 1995. She also teaches in the Certificate Program for Mediation and Dispute Resolution at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2010 and 2011 she was honored as one of the “Best Lawyers” in Southern California in field of Alternate Dispute Resolution by US News & World Report. She has served as the chair of California Bar Association Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution and a Diplomat of the California and National Academies of Distinguished Neutrals. She has also been active within the Southern California Mediation Association and Ventura County Dispute Services.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Kaufer established the Mississippi Mediation Project to provide conflict resolution services. She additionally serves as an advisor to The Margolin Group, which provides public policy services in California and Washington, DC.

She holds a JD from Loyola Law School and a BA in Dispute Resolution Services with a Certificate in Mediation from University of California in Los Angeles. She also attended Pepperdine University School of Law, Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and earned a Certificate in Neutral Evaluation from the Santa Barbara Superior Court.