Biography

Daniel Rainey is a founder and principal in Holistic Solutions, Inc. (HSI), which he and hiswife/partner Julia Morelli founded in 1996 as a home for their practice in dispute resolution, organizational development, and communication. Partial Client List

He is a Fellow of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution, housed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  NCTDR was founded in 1998 with a grant from the Hewlett Foundation.  In 2003, the Center began working with the UMASS Department of Computer Science and the National Mediation Board (where Daniel Rainey was Director of Alternative Dispute Resolution) to model mediation processes online under the first of two National Science Foundation grants.

He is a founding member and current Vice President of  The International Council for Online Dispute Resolution (ICODR), a nonprofit consortium, incorporated in the United States, that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of open standards for the global effort to resolve disputes and conflicts using information and communications technology.

He served as the co-chair of the international group that devised the Universal Disclosure Protocol for Mediation, and continues to be active as an advocate for the UDPM.

Daniel served as the Co-Chair of Working Group 3 of the ODR Task Force for the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, and  Co-Chair of the International Mediation Institute’s Online Mediator Competency Task Force.  He is a past member of the Supreme Court of Virginia’s Access to Justice Commission, Self-Represented Litigants Committee, and he was a participant observer to the Uniform Law Commission’s Study Committee on the Singapore Convention.

He was one of the instructors for the first university ODR course (at the University of Massachusetts Amherst), and he (with Colin Rule) designed and taught the first ODR course required in a graduate dispute resolution program (at Creighton University).  He has developed graduate level ODR courses for several universities, in addition to skills-based ODR training for dispute resolution centers and professional associations.  As a consultant, he has worked with clients in the development of ODR resources, ADR programs, intercultural negotiation skills, Ombudsman programs, and organizational conflict engagement programs in the public, private, and non-profit sectors.

He is one of the Editors-in-Chief of the International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution, and  an author/editor of the award-winning book, Online Dispute Resolution:  Theory and Practice (2nd edition published in 2021).  He is the author of numerous other book chapters and articles about ODR and ADR.  In 2022, his latest book, Integrating Technology Into Your Dispute Resolution Practice:  Making Friends With the Fourth Party, was released by Eleven International Publishers.  He is currently at work with co-authors on a book suggesting effective ways to develop regulations and guardrails for artificial intelligence (AI).


In September, 2017, he retired as the Chief of Staff for the National Mediation Board.

In October, 2017, at the Association for Conflict Resolution annual conference, he received the Mary Parker Follett Award for innovation in dispute resolution.

Just for fun . . . . L’Ordre de Bon Temps

The Order of Good Cheer, or the Order of the Good Times, was originally a French Colonial order founded in 1606 by suggestion of Samuel de Champlain.  Daniel was made an honorary member of the order by a Canadian labor agency  while working with the National Mediation Board.  What is required is “a stay of at least three days in Nova Scotia where you will have plenty of fun and good food.”  He certainly did.