MICHAEL J. GRINFELD, associate professor of journalism, studies media effects on conflict and dispute resolution processes. He teaches courses in magazine writing, journalism and conflict, law and the courts, covering terrorism and science, health and environmental writing. Grinfeld is also the co-director of MU’s Center for the Study of Conflict Law and the Media, a collaboration with the university’s law school, where he is an adjunct associate professor and a senior fellow at its Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution. Emphasizing topics in law and medicine, Grinfeld has served as a contributing writer for California Lawyer and Psychiatric Times magazines. His work has also appeared in other magazines, including House Counsel, Global Journalist, Medicine & Behavior, Parenting, Healthcare Business, Geriatric Times, and the Forensic Echo, among others. Before coming to the MU School of Journalism in 2001, he was a reporter with the Los Angeles Daily Journal, covering the courts in Orange County, Calif. and writing on a broad range of other law-related topics. Prior to turning to journalism, Grinfeld was an attorney for 16 years, specializing in civil litigation. He is a former vice president of claims litigation for Los Angeles-based insurer Farmers Group, Inc.