Audio recording: Listen to this session (40 mins) >>

Powerpoint >>

About the session

Two practitioners from two different backgrounds reflect on what it is about them that draws them to ADR , and what is it about mediation, and more generally ADR, that creates such a diverse and often polarised opinion across the legal profession and workplaces. Is it simply just who we are or is it cultural? What is inhibiting some legal practitioners from making the paradigm shift from the adversarial approach to a co-operative approach and what is it that enables some lawyers and workplaces to use a balance of both approaches in conflict resolution? These questions and others led the presenters to reflect upon their own experiences and to engage in qualitative and quantitative research to look for some answers.  The presenters will talk about the findings of their research, and lead an interactive session that canvasses the important questions of how to create an ADR culture in the legal profession and workplaces.

We will be taking participants through an improvisation exercise to raise the level of awareness. We will then lead a discussion about how to create a conflict resolution culture in legal settings and workplaces, and a more general discussion on how reflection and practice links to a mediative state of mind.

Podcast: Listen to David and Jill talk about their session (6 mins) >>

Jill Howieson

Jill Howieson is currently the Associate Dean (Students) at the University of Western Australia’s School of Law and is the unit co-ordinator and lecturer in Negotiation and Mediation, and Alternative Dispute Resolution at UWA. She is the UWA representative on WADRA and a member of the WA executive of LEADR.
Jill holds degrees in English, Psychology (Hons) and an LLB (Hons) and has just completed a PhD in Law at UWA, researching in the area of family law dispute resolution: family lawyers and their clients.  Jill’s research areas include procedural justice, alternative dispute resolution and legal education and Jill works from an inter-disciplinary socio-legal perspective and conducts empirical research.

Jill is an accredited mediator and mediates at the Citizen Advice Bureau mostly in the area of family, commercial and neighbourhood disputes.  Before entering academia, Jill practised as a solicitor in the area of dispute resolution at Mallesons Stephen Jacques and smaller dispute resolution firms and she has a broad range of experience in ADR processes.