Here is a copy of an interview I gave to a Law Journal when I was in Australia providing training to lawyers and others in Collaborative Practice.
Australia’s curiosity for collaborative approach
Australian lawyers are enthusiastic about adopting collaborative law, according to a visiting Canadian expert.
The new approach to divorce has swept the US, UK and Canada, and collaborative and family lawyer, mediator and trainer Marion Korn predicts it will also take off in Australia.
During a series of advanced and introductory level training sessions in Australia in July, Ms Korn said lawyers were also interested in whether collaborative law approaches could be used in other areas of practice.
“The model was developed almost exclusively as a family law model, but what matters is the core values of the model are applicable to any area of law. There seems to be great curiosity in Australia to move it to commercial and business law,” Ms Korn said.
Leading the charge on collaborative practice in Victoria, Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) president Cathy Gale attended Ms Korn’s three-day advanced training session in July.
She hopes Victoria would have 100 lawyers trained in collaborative law by February 2007.
Ms Gale said Victoria was in the process of registering a collaborative law trademark and the LIV would publish a brochure about the law for solicitors to give their clients.
Ms Korn said lawyers must realise the model focused on the future and resolving the dispute, particularly if children were involved. It was not about their own client’s needs.
“The major benefit to families is we cut them off from the possibility of rehashing [grievances], and as a result we’re cutting down on victimisation,” she said.
After studying collaborative law in 2000, Ms Korn quickly became involved in the training of lawyers keen to adopt the new approach.
She is part-way through a masters degree in dispute resolution, and will play a significant role in the operation of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals’ annual forum to be hosted in her home town, Toronto, in October 2007.
“I would like to see a panel of Australian lawyers at the Toronto conference,” she said.
The most significant tenet of collaborative practice is that the disputants and their lawyers sign a contract at the start of a matter stating that in no circumstances will they go to court [see “There’s no “I” in collaborate”, June 2006 LIJ, page 14].
Across the US, UK and Canada, collaborative law has about a 95 per cent success rate, Ms Korn said.
