Roger Fisher (academic)

Roger Fisher
Born	May 28, 1922
Died	August 25, 2012
Nationality	American
Fields	Law
Institutions	Harvard Law School
Alma mater	Harvard University

Roger Fisher (May 28, 1922 – August 25, 2012) was Samuel Williston Professor of Law emeritus at Harvard Law School and director of the Harvard Negotiation Project.

Fisher specialized in negotiation and conflict management. He was the co-author (with William Ury) of Getting to YES, the classic book on "interest-based" negotiation, as well as numerous other publications. After serving in WWII as a weather reconnaissance pilot, Fisher worked on the Marshall Plan in Paris under W. Averell Harriman. After finishing his law degree at Harvard, he worked with the Washington, DC, law firm of Covington & Burling, arguing several cases before the US Supreme Court and advising on several international disputes. He returned to Harvard Law School and became a professor there in 1958. After having lost many of his friends in the war and seeing so many costly disputes as a litigator, Fisher became intrigued with the art and science of how we manage our differences. Fisher and his students at the Harvard Negotiation Project (founded in 1979) began interviewing people who were known as skilled negotiators in order to understand what made them effective. And he started his study of conflict with the question, "What advice could I give to both parties in a dispute that would be helpful and lead to better outcomes?" This work led to the draft, "International Mediation: A Working Guide" (April, 1978), and, eventually, to the international best-seller, Getting to YES.

In the late 1960s, Fisher conceived of a court-style debate show that handled one contemporary policy issue each week. The Advocates premiered in October 1969 on WGBH-TV.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Roger Fisher and his colleagues taught courses on negotiation and conflict management at Harvard, but they also worked as advisors on real negotiations and conflicts of all types, worldwide; including peace processes, hostage crises, diplomatic negotiations, and commercial and legal negotiations and disputes. Fisher believed that keeping one foot in the real world helping people with real disputes was critical to producing theory and tools useful in the real world. This tradition at the Harvard Negotiation Project produced a community of thinkers and practitioners that now spans the globe.

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