Our Family Mediation Certification Program, which began in late January with Introduction to ADR(Jan. 21-23) and concluding with Basic Family Negotiation & Mediation (May 5-6, 9-11), produced 22 successfully completing the program . Combined, we have trained over 60 participants this term alone!
Course Satisfaction
Feedback received from our course participants during the 2015-2016 season has been nothing but positive! In fact, if we were to compile the "overall course satisfaction" average from ALL courses this past season alone, here is what our results would look like in illustrative form:
As one can see, 44% of all our course attendees during the 2015-2016 season were "extremely satisfied" with their course experience at Riverdale, whereas 51% were "very satisfied". Delivery of course content and effectiveness of trainer(s) are not the only factors that would influence such results, but also how the participants felt about the organization of course, their experience working with coaches & actors, the effectiveness of guests speakers, and quality of venue & food.
Certified Family Mediators!
In the past twelve months, twelve (12) of our past interns have been certified by OAFM! Congratulations to the following:
Brook Thorndycraft
Sina Hariri
Hayley Glaholt
Marina Mammon
Margarida Pacheco
Archana Medhekar
Andrea Watt
Lorna George
Joanne Schaeffer
Michelle Walton
Zahra Khedri
Gail Brochu
A Perspective on "Duty of Care"
Our one-day workshop about the duty of care that FDR professionals have to identify, assess and manage power imbalances (May 19) was well attended as always. One of our participants, Mary Jo Franchi-Rothecker, wrote an excellent article about the workshop in the Accendus June 2016 Newsletter. Read it here!
On the Radio
On April 15, Hilary was a guest on The Night Side, a Newstalk 1010 radio program hosted by Barb DiGiulio. Hilary talked about free & subsidized mediation for family law. To listen to the full interview, click here.
Making an IMPACT: Teamwork in the Carribean
During the Winter/Spring of 2016, our associates at Riverdale Mediation worked in partnership with the Impact Justice Project and University of the West Indies to train professionals as community mediators in Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia. Check out our series of blog posts that were written during this incredible training experience:
Our popular Wine & Cheese Family Mediation Information Night, a two-hour event where prospective mediators mingle with experienced mediators, was held on May 26 at the Law Chambers (393 University Ave). Hilary Linton and Elizabeth Hyde facilitated the session, with help from current interns Michelle Walton, Yoel Lichtblau and Margarida Pacheco. The intimate set-up proved to be quite effective, as it encouraged attendees to be engaged with the interactive session. For those who had missed out, our next scheduled session will be held on December 8, 2016.
Professionalism in an Adversarial World
Hilary Linton
I spoke recently (June 16) on a panel of experts on legal professionalism, along with Renu Mandhane (Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission); Justice Donald McLeod (Ontario Court of Justice) and Professor Allan Hutchinson (Osgoode Hall Law School).
The panel was part of the annual “summer school” program for lawyers working for the Ontario government, and our presentations were pre-recorded to form discussion points for the program participants. The title of our session was “Maintaining Professionalism in an Adversarial World."
As a mediator, mediation and negotiation trainer and provider of court-connected dispute resolution services, issues of professionalism and professional ethics dominate much of my work.
Although issues of professionalism cross all legal and dispute resolution cultures and contexts, they may arise more often in the family law context, where the drivers of conflict are often personal and historical. Lawyers, dispute resolution professionals and service providers can be drawn into the emotionality and values-based conflicts that tend to dominate much of our work.
Deanne Sowter, research fellow at the Winkler Institute for Dispute Resolution, recently conducted a series of round-table discussions (in which I participated) that have resulted in an excellent series of posts on the topic. She finds that, although different FDR professionals are driven by different procedural expectations, which in turn define their understandings of legal and professional ethics, there is a consistent acknowledgment that “family law ADR requires a higher ethical standard.”
The first step is for each of us to understand our own personal moral code, because that is the compass by which we will interpret the various Rules and Standards of Professional Conduct that guide us. For example, I recently helped draft the Standards of Practice for FDR Professionals for Ontario’s Family Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario. In crafting those standards, there is no question that the values of our drafting team informed the crafting of those Standards.
The legal profession has earned a bad reputation for adversarial negotiation. Indeed, in the family law context, some research suggests that family lawyers were, at one time, considered more adversarial than other kinds of lawyers. With the growth in popularity and influence of the collaborative law movement, and the exponential increase in numbers of family lawyers taking mediation training, it is arguable that family lawyers are now the least adversarial of their kind. This is not necessarily a good thing.
The training we take, the processes we offer, our life experiences and our own personalities, together determine our standards of ethics relating to negotiation. And, presumably, the mandate to “do no harm” guides us all, at an elementary level, in all our choices, including the manner in which we interpret the Law Society’s still-mandatory duty of zealous advocacy for our clients.
In the video, I suggest that adversarialism is not, in itself, an evil. Indeed, in order to do no harm, it is sometimes essential. Ethical advocacy requires an assessment of the appropriate approach for each case and each client, what Fisher and Ury coined as that client’s “BATNA” in their seminal work “Getting to Yes”. Sometimes, an adversarial approach is exactly what is required for effective advocacy for a client. Somehow, we have come to conflate “adversarial advocacy” with “unethical advocacy”.
It is true that many of the tactics used in competitive bargaining can seem, and be, unethical, in that they are designed to take advantage of the other party, create misunderstandings, and rely on deception of varying degrees. But adversarial negotiation need not be unethical if those engaging in it are direct and transparent about the approach they are taking and avoid deceptive tactics.
I do a lot of teaching in law schools, and have both coached teams and judged many a negotiation competition. I find that today’s law students understand interest-based negation quite well; but they are distinctly uncomfortable with negotiating in an adversarial way, even when the facts suggest that it is the most appropriate approach for their client. It seems to me that we need to discuss these ideas much more with our students to help them understand there is a difference between adversarialism and unethical conduct.
U P C O M I N G E V E N T S
The Annual FDRIO Conference will be on held on Monday, November 21, 2016, at the Ismaili Centre in Toronto. The conference will kick off FDRweek (November 21-26, 2016). Anticipation is high as FDRIO forecasters predict another sold out event this year! The theme for this year's conference is “FDRevolution”: a highlight on the emerging complexities of FDR practice. Join the "FDRevolution"!
U P C O M I N G C O U R S E S
2 0 1 6
September 12 & 13, 2016 Basic Parenting Coordination This course has been accredited for 0.75 Professionalism Hours, and
is eligible for up to 12 hours of Substantive Content.
September 27, 28 & 29 / 30, 2016 Family Law(21/30 Hours) This program is not accredited for Professionalism Hours.
However, it is eligible for 26 hours of Substantive Content.
November 30, December 1 & 2, 2016 Advanced Family Mediation This program had been accredited by the Law Society for 4.5 Professionalism Hours
for experienced members and 17 Substantive hours.
2 0 1 7
January 12 & 13, 2017 Advanced Parenting Coordination This course has been accredited for 4.75 Professionalism Hours, and
is eligible for up to 8.25 hours of Substantive Content.
March 20, 21, 22 & 23, 2017 Family Law(21/30 Hours) This program is not accredited for Professionalism Hours.
However, it is eligible for 26 hours of Substantive Content.
May 11, 12, 15, 16 & 17, 2017 Basic Family Negotiation & Mediation This program has been accredited by the Law Society for 7.5 Professionalism Hours
and up to 32.5 Substantive Hours.
