The Mediator Standards Board recently identified “two of Australia’s leading lawyer mediators, Anne Sutherland and our company principal, Michael Mills” to be interviewed for an article in Lawyers Weekly on why mediation training and accreditation matters. The author (and interviewer) for the article described Michael as “one of Australia’s leading lawyers for complex commercial litigation and dispute resolution” and how he sees mediation training and accreditation as important. Michael also noted that mediation training is an opportunity to broaden your dispute resolution skills, rather than shift purely from one model to another. Reflecting on his experience, Mills noted: “I did it not because I wanted to be a mediator, I did it because I was a litigation lawyer and I believed it would improve my skills as a dispute resolution lawyer.”
He added, “Negotiation and mediation are quite different. It doesn’t mean that lawyers can’t be good mediators, of course they can, and they are, but there is some particular training and skills that are required to be a good mediator, just as there are to be a good lawyer, or a good dentist or an architect.”
Mills explained his experience in applying the skills in practice, were that “it will better prepare you for when you a) appear before a mediator, as all litigation lawyers almost invariably do, and b) because it will broaden your skills in term of how you look at disputes; how you look at and participate in negotiations; and how you can best advise your clients. It helps enormously.”
Read the full article on Lawyers Weekly website.