

About
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Hansa R. Patel is a lawyer, mediator, mindfulness teacher, and trainer who brings equity, reflective practice, and experiential learning to mediation and professional development. She provides mediation training and experiential mediation training to mediators, lawyers, and mental health professionals across the United States, Canada, Nigeria, and Kenya, and has trained Family Court Mediators through the Judicial Council of California in integrating mindfulness in conflict. Her instructional work emphasizes mindfulness-based mediation, equity-centered mediation, and reflective debrief practice so practitioners can bring greater presence, curiosity, and culturally responsive skills to complex disputes.
For fourteen years as an attorney, Hansa advocated for abused, neglected, and abandoned children and their parents in San Francisco Juvenile Dependency Court, developing deep experience with high-stakes family law, child-welfare systems, and multidisciplinary advocacy. That legal background informs her role as a conflict resolution attorney and attorney mediator, allowing her to hold space for families navigating emotionally complex matters and to design trauma-informed mediation processes that prioritize safety and fairness.
In community practice, Hansa serves as a mediator for Conflict Intervention Services at the San Francisco Bar Association, where she mediates landlord-tenant disputes aimed at preventing homelessness and facilitates public board meetings that bring housing organizations, property managers, service providers, and government agencies into constructive dialogue. She also co-chairs a virtual reflective practice for landlord/tenant mediators, supporting peers in sustained reflective supervision for mediators and shared professional growth.
A certified mindfulness teacher trained by Warrior One, Hansa teaches mindfulness for lawyers, conflict professionals, social justice advocates, and law students, drawing on more than two decades of meditation and yoga practice including compassion and loving-kindness meditation, Surya Kriya, and Vipassana retreats. Her teaching weaves mindfulness in conflict, trauma-informed approaches, and DEI-informed communication so that individuals and organizations learn to respond rather than react and to align practice with values of equity and belonging.
Hansa’s work is rooted in the conviction that lasting transformation comes from combining legal insight, reflective practice, and mindful presence; she partners with organizations, courts, and communities to deliver mediation services for organizations and families, leadership conflict coaching, youth conflict resolution training, and tailored professional mediation training that centers dignity, connection, and practical outcomes.

Education
2025
2001
2000
1995
Whole Systemic Transformation Equity Training
Admitted to the California State Bar in 2001
Juris Doctor (JD) law degree from John F. Kennedy University
Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and English from University of San Francisco

Boards & More
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Center for Understanding in Conflict, President
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Marin Lawyer's Association, Board Member
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John F. Kennedy Law School, Advisory Committee
Volunteer Work
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Adult Facilitator for Peer-to-Peer Restorative Youth Court at Youth Transforming Justice Peer-to-Peer Court
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Ross School: Co-Chair Community Engagement (2023-2025), Active Member of the Admin Diversity Committee
Teaching
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Center for Understanding in Conflict
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Reflective Practice Institute International (RPII)
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Youth Transforming Justice (YTJ)
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Family Divorce Mediation Council of Great New York (ACR-GNY)
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Sacramento State University
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National Youth Law Center
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Ottawa Chapter of Ontario Association of Mediators
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National Association For Community Mediation
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San Francisco Community Boards
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California Judicial Council, Family Court Mediation
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San Francisco Bar Association
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San Francisco District Attorneys
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British Columbia and Nigerian Mediators
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New Rule-LLC Nigeria and Kenya Public Defenders
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National Lawyers Guild


