Martha M. Peters (PhD, MEd, EdS, B.A.) is an Emeritus Professor of Legal Education at the Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina. Though not a lawyer, Dr. Peters has worked in law schools within the USA and abroad, with law students, law professors and lawyers for over 30 years.
Dr. Peters holds a B.A. in Psychology from Mary Baldwin College, an M.Ed. and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and an Ed.S. in Counselor Education from the University of Florida. She developed and directed one of the first academic support programs in American legal education from 1984-1998, the Law Student Resources Program, at the University of Florida’s College of Law to help law students adapt to law study and manage the stress of law school. In 1999, Peters created and directed the Academic Achievement Program at the University of Iowa’s College of Law until 2006 when, as a founding faculty member of Elon University’s School of Law, she integrated academic support with Elon Law’s leadership program.
Dr. Peters’ work with law students, legal educators and practicing lawyers has focused on communication skills, interviewing and counseling, learning styles, study skills, stress reduction and time management. In addition to her work in the USA, she has lectured and presented workshops on these topics to academics, professionals and students in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Poland, South Africa.
Dr. Peters was certified as a family law mediator by the Florida Supreme Court and has co-taught courses in Dispute Resolution Institutes at Hamline and Pepperdine Universities. She has taught interviewing and counseling courses at Elon Law School and is a co-author of The Counselor-at-Law: A Collaborative Approach to Client Interviewing and Counseling (Cochran, DiPipa, Peters), a best-selling American book that is now in its third edition.
Dr. Peters is a qualified administrator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator [MBTI], an excellent tool for understanding different communication and learning styles. This instrument is effective across cultural differences and has been used around the world. Dr. Peters was one of the first to use this instrument in academic support in American legal education. She co-authored Juris Types: Learning Law Through Self-Understanding, the leading book in this field. She has used the MBTI in several consultative interactions with lawyers and law firms and has frequently administered and explained the MBTI in negotiation, mediation, interviewing and counseling law school courses and continuing education workshops.
