William Wesley Burrington | Santa Monica | California | USA
Will Burrington is currently studying alternative dispute resolution at the world-renowned Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at the Caruso School of Law at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He is working toward his LLM (Master of Laws) degree in Dispute Resolution. In 2022, Will was selected to join the Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal. He is a member of the Dispute Resolution Society and the Caruso School of Law Wellbeing Task Force. He is also a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) and its Section of Dispute Resolution as well as the Southern California Mediation Association. In November, 2022 Will participated in the Mediating Disputes executive education program offered by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
From 1987-2000 Will practiced communications and Internet law with firms in Milwaukee and Washington, DC; served as Chief Counsel to a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Will's native Milwaukee; Associate General Counsel and Head of Global Public Policy for AOL (formerly America Online), as well as Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer for AOL Europe in Hamburg and London. He has also served as a Senior Communications and Public Affairs Counselor to Fleishman-Hillard in Washington, DC, one of the top global public relations and marketing agencies.
Will has advised, coached and served as a board member of several Internet start-ups and nonprofit organizations. He was profiled for his outside-the-box business advocacy, effective coalition-building and visionary thought leadership skills in the best-selling book, AOL.com, authored by Kara Swisher, formerly of The Wall Street Journal and cofounder of Recode.
He is a 2014 graduate of the highly respected Leadership Coaching Program at Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership in Washington, DC. Will is a member of the International Coach Federation (“ICF”) and a Fellow of the Institute of Coaching, based at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate in Boston. Will graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in government from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI and earned his Juris Doctorate (J.D.) degree in 1987 from Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee where he was an elected member of the Marquette Law Review and recipient of the annual Dean’s Award.
With 36 years of professional experience in the practice of law, public affairs and advocacy, corporate communications and senior management roles in the U.S. and Europe, he brings a unique, multi-disciplinary lens to mediation and leadership coaching.