LEADR South Australian Event

Tips, traps and common errors for mediators

with Panel – David Jenkin, Franca Petrone, Margie Ross, Julie Young & Steve Walsh QC

Experienced mediators have learnt from trial and error.
In this session, this panel of experienced mediators will share examples of some of the traps and common errors that they’ve made and what they learnt.

Building on this learning, they’ll pass on a number of tips sharing how and why they do certain things differently to when they started out as mediators.

David Jenkin joined Kelly & Co in 1981 after obtaining his Bachelor of Laws from the University of Adelaide. David specialises in dealing with the affairs of high net worth individuals with business interests and has conducted over 100 mediations ranging from international trade disputes to mediations requested by government ministers. David has been a National Director of LEADR and has spoken at national and international conferences. David's practice includes commercial disputes through to family law and in particular family law property settlement advice including the preparation of complex pre-nuptial agreements. David is a member of LEADR's Advanced panel of mediators and the panel of mediators for the Australian Commercial Dispute Centre. He is a member of a number of industry panels including the Law Society of South Australia's panel of mediators, the Office of Mediation Advice Panel, and the National Electricity Market Panel of Mediators.

Franca Petrone has a mediation and dispute management consulting practice and delivers training in negotiation, conflict management, mediation and communication. She is on LEADR's Accreditation Committee and the Law Society of SA ADR Committee. She is secretary and treasurer of the Australian National Mediator Accreditation Committee Inc that is tasked with implementing the new National Mediator Approval and Practice Standards. Franca’s experience includes 20 years teaching at Flinders and Adelaide Universities and 10 years as a Regional Advisor to the Australian Public Service Commission (SA and NT). She provides sessional Senior Case Officer services to the Child Support Agency and mediates in areas ranging from commercial, workplace, personal injury and family matters to sexual abuse facilitations for the Catholic and Anglican Churches. She has provided consultancy, mentoring and training services to many organizations including the Departments of Defence and Family and Community Services, ATO, Workcover, tertiary education providers, schools, hospitals and prisons.

Margie Ross is a barrister and mediator specialising in family law, mediation and ADR. She has been a legal practitioner for 29 years, a mediator for 20 years and has practised as a barrister for 16 years. Since 1990 she has mediated over 400 disputes in areas ranging from family and commercial to industrial, educational, tenancy and abuse grievances. Margaret is nationally accredited and a registered Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner. She is a member of LEADR’s Advanced panel, the Law Society of SA Panel, and the Office of the Mediation Adviser, Retail Tenancies and the Catholic and Anglican Churches panels. She has conducted dispute resolution and mediation courses for numerous Universities, the SA Environment, Resources and Development Court, the Residential Tenancies Authority in Queensland, the Legal Practitioners Conduct Board and Work Cover SA. She is currently a Director of AIFLAM and a member of the organising committee for the 10th National Mediation Conference.

Julie Young worked as a conciliator in the Equal Opportunities Commission and Human Rights Commission during the 80s and 90s when anti-discrimination legislation changed Australia and the views of many Australians. Since then Julie has worked in the Magistrates Court conducting mediations within the civil jurisdiction on a daily basis and more recently in the Youth Court working with young offenders in a restorative justice framework. As a nationally accredited mediator, Julie has had extensive experience working within local government and community based mediation programs and is also a regular coach at LEADR mediation workshops.