I am a nationally accredited mediator and member of LEADR (Lawyers Engaged in Alternate Dispute Resolution) which is a professional community of alternate dispute resolution practitioners in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific Region.
[1] practising in commercial, family and estate matters. My ambition is to promote mediation as a quicker, better and more cost effective method of dispute resolution to individuals and organisations.
My passion to do so comes from my years as a lawyer both overseas and in Australia[2] where I have seen and continue to see parties involved in protracted litigation and spending hefty amounts on legal and associated costs.
I have recently been involved in a case where the parties between them spent over $1000,000 in legal costs although the value of the estate at the heart of the dispute was $3000,000.
In some litigation the parties are now forced to embark on some form of alternate dispute resolution either before commencing (such as in Family Law matters) or, after commencing (such as in Family Provision or Employment Cases).
In these areas, the success rate at mediation can be high, for example from statistics analysed in 2011 in Family Provision litigation about 83% of matters referred to mediation settle at or sometime after mediation
[1] I practice from Edmund Barton Chambers
[2] I have practiced as an attorney (solicitor) and advocate (barrister) in South Africa between 1991-1997 and has been a legal practitioner, practising as both a solicitor and barrister in Sydney since 1999