Practitioners

Tony is a highly respected and accomplished mediator.

He has been nationally accredited by the Law Society of NSW under National Mediator Accreditation Standards for many years and had a distinguished career as a Registrar in various capacities in the Federal Court of Australia and Federal Circuit Court of Australia. For a time, he was also a Conciliator at the Fair Work Commission. In these roles, Tony conducted many mediations in all areas of federal jurisdiction (except family law).

Tony began mediating as a private practitioner in 2019 and has since mediated commercial, industrial, employment, maritime and partnership disputes.

View Tony's CV here

Peter is one of Australia’s most experienced intellectual property practitioners.

He has specialised in intellectual property for many years, advising clients in the publishing, digital, information and entertainment industries how best to identify, manage and protect their assets. He has represented his clients in courts and tribunals and been active in legal policy debates on reform of the relevant law through his membership of various professional bodies and international and Australian government advisory committees.

In 2019, Peter trained as a mediator at the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution in London. He became nationally accredited by the Law Society of NSW under National Mediator Accreditation Standards and now focuses on using his experience of the legal and commercial environment in which media and intellectual property transactions take place to mediate disputes.

View Peter's CV here

Julie has practised in dispute resolution as a lawyer since 1989. In the same year she obtained her accreditation as a mediator from LEADR (now Resolution Institute). She refreshed that accreditation with National Mediator Accreditation Standards through the Resolution Institute in 2021.

While on secondment from Allens in 1994, Julie devised and implemented the mediation service of the Arts Law Centre of Australia, the national community legal centre for the arts, where she went on to become its Executive Director.

Julie heads the disputes practice at Banki Haddock Fiora, acting for clients in commercial and intellectual property litigation in Federal and State courts. She is a long-standing member of the Litigation Law and Practice Committee of the Law Society of New South Wales and in 2022 she joined its Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee.

View Julie's CV here

Max commenced as a practising barrister in 1979 after completing postgraduate studies in the USA on a Fulbright Scholarship. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 1999.

In the first half of his career at the Bar, the focus of his work was the resolution of workplace issues via litigation in Federal and State courts; by conciliation or arbitration in Federal and State Industrial tribunals; and via private negotiation and mediation.

He has acted for employees, contractors, unions as well as for employers across a vast range of industries. He has also acted for the Federal Government, most  notably as Counsel Assisting, in the Agent Orange Royal Commission and regularly acts for the NSW Government especially in the fields of health, transport, police and payroll tax.

In the second half of his career, following training as a Mediator in 1992, Max has also developed a broad based practice in dispute resolution involving mediation of contractual and other commercial disputes, employment and personal injury matters – as well as the more informal ‘facilitation’ of an increasing array of disagreements and disputes.

Max has spent in excess of 10,000 hours as mediator, facilitator or counsel in ADR processes.  Many of his matters have involved Australia’s biggest companies.

Max has recently undertaken a number of complicated and highly sensitive workplace investigations for major publicly listed companies and for industrial organisations and facilitated several significant disputes in both the public and private hospital system in New South Wales.

He has written and provided extensive training on communication, ADR and conflict resolution. He is a regular presenter at law firms and at mediation forums and he mentors new mediators.

Max sees himself as a “resolutionary”, committed to the prevention and early resolution of conflict with a focus on fostering better communication and listening skills and on the identification of common interests.