Audrey J. Lee is a Senior Mediator at Boston Law Collaborative, LLC and Executive Director of the BLC Institute, a non-profit dedicated to providing education and training in all areas of dispute resolution. She is also a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School where she teaches courses on Mediation and Diversity & Dispute Resolution, faculty for the Harvard Mediation Intensive, and the founding Principal of Perspectiva LLC.
Audrey specializes in mediating workplace and organizational conflicts, particularly those involving perceptions of bias and/or ongoing working relationships. In her mediations, Audrey draws on her experience as a Consultant for Essential Partners to bring a dialogue-centered approach to create spaces conducive to constructive learning. In addition to currently serving as Chair of BLC’s ADR Panel, Audrey has served as a mediation panel member for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and as a member of a pool of Title IX Adjudicators for Harvard Law School. Prior to joining BLC, Audrey served as a mediator for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination where she mediated harassment, disability, age, race, and gender discrimination cases.
In her consulting practice, Audrey works with clients to develop their ability to engage more productively in difficult workplace conversations and negotiations. Her private sector clients include The Cambridge Group, Jenner & Block LLP, Exponent Failure Analysis Associates, Ropes & Gray LLP, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, and Winston & Strawn LLP. In the public sector, she has led advanced mediation, diversity and bias programs for the Australian Fair Work Commission, the Office of the UN Ombudsman and Mediation Service, the League of American Orchestras, the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, and the Office of the IL Attorney General. Drawing on her experience as a mediator and conflict management consultant, Audrey leads interactive workshops on implicit bias for attorneys, mediators, law enforcement, executives and other professionals. She has also taught employment discrimination and harassment prevention programs for a range of audiences including ironworkers, mental health professionals, bank executives, and teachers.
Audrey is featured in Harvard Business Review’s “Insights” series on Leadership and Managing People and has been a contributing commentator for the BBC Capital’s Work Ethic column. Her most recent articles include “Implicit Bias in Mediation,” published in the Spring 2020 issue of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review and “Mediating Conflicts at Work,” from the November 2023 issue of the Mass Bar Section Review. She has also published articles on unconscious bias, employment discrimination, negotiation, interactive teaching methods, and managing diversity issues within firms: “‘What Would You Say?’ Giving Teeth to Diversity Programming,” Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession Review: The State of Diversity and Inclusion in the Legal Profession (Spring 2013); “Effectively Negotiating Diversity Issues Within Law Firms: The Value of Applying Negotiation Pedagogy and Principles to Diversity CLE and Training,” NALP Bulletin (June 2009); “Negotiating Part-Time Work at Elite Law Firms,” 6 Pepp. Disp. Resol. L.J. 405 (2006); Audrey J. Lee, “Unconscious Bias Theory in Employment Discrimination Litigation,” 40 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 481 (2005).
Outside of mediating and teaching, Audrey is active in community and professional associations. She serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Harvard Mediation Program and as an Editorial Board Member for the American Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Magazine. She is also a past member of the Mass Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Section Council and Past President of the Association for Conflict Resolution Chicago Chapter. In her community, she has also served as a Board member for her children’s School Site Council and after-school program. Previously, Audrey practiced law as an intellectual property and litigation attorney at Winston & Strawn in Chicago and Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. Audrey is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
*Admitted in NY and IL but retired (NY)/inactive (IL); not admitted in Massachusetts.