résumé

I am a self-employed ADR services provider, working in the private sector. I began training and working to develop an ADR business in the mid-1990s, as the field itself began to take root and grow in Ontario. In those first years I was still practicing civil litigation as well, but in 2003, I closed my litigation practice. Since then, my work in the legal field has been as an ADR professional, only, primarily as a mediator in civil and commercial cases.

Today, as a mediator with more than 42 years of training and experience in litigation and mediation, I work with lawyers and their clients to resolve civil and commercial disputes through collaboration in the development of practical solutions, whether litigation is already in play or not, bringing energy, insight, patience and determination to the process.

contents of this section

• narrative
• résumé
• training & experience in litigation & legal practice
• general training & experience in mediation & alternative dispute resolution
• arbitration
• refresh & renew with Riverdale and OAFM
• teaching, demonstration & coaching (all fields)
• community service
• writing
• painting

•  narrative:

I had the great good fortune to begin my legal life at one of the last old-fashioned firms in Toronto. As a student and junior, I worked for a senior lawyer who gave me the opportunity to do supervised work in almost every area of a solicitor's general practice:

• in real estate: agreements of purchase and sale, mortgages, powers of sale, sub-searches, 40-year searches, closings and tenders;
• incorporations, articles of incorporation, registers, shareholders' agreements;
• sales of business: drafting & closing both share purchases and asset purchases;
• commercial leases: drafting leases, enforcement under leases;
• bulk sales;
• in estates: drafting wills, drafting & passing probate;
• collections of every kind.

As for litigation, I attended on the procedural motions that arose in my senior's files, and had the opportunity to assist on trials and appeals involving all of the subject areas listed above. I worked on negligence and breach of trust cases against lawyers, and assisted in some criminal jury trials, including attempted murder and manslaughter in operation of a motor vehicle and a protracted preliminary hearing in a criminal conspiracy case related to the scandal of the day surrounding bachelorette apartments.

On the tort front, I worked on many motor vehicle accidents, as well as slip and fall accidents (TTC tracks, pavement, ice), a case in which a man fell through the rotten railing of a deck (broken spine), and a case in which a man fell down unlit restaurant stairs to his death (broken neck). I also assisted on cases of professional negligence against doctors.

By the time I became a partner in 1986, I was working independently as a litigator, and my practice was developing along the lines it would take until I ceased to practice law in 2003, primarily dealing with disputes arising with respect to real estate, mortgages, commercial leases, security issues, employment, franchises, partnerships, shareholders, estates and cases involving realtors' and solicitors' negligence and breach of trust.

In the early 1990s, while practising as a litigator, I began to follow developments in alternative dispute resolution. It had become clear to me that most people involved in litigation do not understand the process or the legal advice they get, and I had seen in my own practice how harrowing litigation can be, and how ruinously expensive it is for ordinary Canadians. It seemed to me that any process that would involve them personally in solving their problems would be an improvement over the Courts, and that reform was needed.

I began to take classes and study with a view to shifting my practice in the direction of non-combat dispute resolution. There were no jobs in ADR then. I simply chipped away at ADR training and business while I continued to practice litigation, until the day came when I could close my law office to practice ADR exclusively, in April of 2003.

2 final notes:

I am a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators of London, England. The training I did to earn this designation was the toughest I have ever undertaken, and this is the professional qualification of which I am most proud. Strictly speaking, it is not training I have had occasion to use directly, because it is training in hugely complex multi-national commercial disputes, which are not matters in which I am usually retained (LOL). But it is the most exacting training in arbitral jurisdiction and procedure available in the world and, together with my extensive practice and teaching experience in civil litigation, it developed in me a powerful procedural understanding that I bring to bear in ADR in Ontario.

In 2012, after more than 30 years at the Ontario Bar and more than 15 years training and working in ADR in civil and commercial cases, I decided to refresh my skills through further training. When I looked around to discover what was available, it became apparent to me that the best mediation training available in Toronto is the training offered by Riverdale Mediation, which is training in family mediation. While family mediation is not my field, I wanted that training, so I began to work with Riverdale, undertaking substantial course work and, ultimately, a 100-hour internship, through which I qualified for designation as an Accredited Family Mediator (AccFM) in 2013. The Riverdale program was exactly what I wanted: I enjoyed the training, it sharpened my skills as a mediator and my commitment to service as an ADR practitioner was renewed.