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Council members

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- Previous Members of Council

The Attorney-General appoints members to the council on the basis of their individual expertise and not on the basis of their membership of any organisation. Members come from around Australia and bring to the council a broad range of experience in the area of dispute resolution. Members are available to give speeches in each State and Territory. Invitations can be sent to the NADRAC Secretariat.

Mr Jeremy Gormly SC (Chair)

Mr Jeremy Gormly SC currently practices at the NSW Bar. He was admitted to the Bar in 1985 and became Senior Counsel in 2001. He has appeared in numerous commissions of inquiry as counsel assisting including the CAA-Seaview Aviation Royal Commission, the Thredbo Landslide Inquiry and the Andrew Mallard Murder Conviction Inquiry in Western Australia. Mr Gormly is also a practising mediator, and has mediated numerous commercial, equity and negligence actions. Under a joint Commission from the Commonwealth Attorney-General and the Minister for Science and Personnel he was appointed to and completed the task of concluding outstanding claims arising from the 1964 collision of HMAS Melbourne with HMAS Voyager. MrGormly is a member of the Legal Profession Admission Board, the NSW Bar Council, the Chairman of one of the Council’s Professional Conduct Committee and former Chairman and member of numerous other committees and boards.

Professor Nadja Alexander

Professor Nadja Alexander is Director of the Institute of Conflict Engagement and Resolution (ICER) and Professor of Conflict Resolution at Hong Kong Shue Yan University and she holds honorary academic appointments in Africa and Australia. Professor Alexander is an accredited mediator in Australia and Hong Kong and has extensive experience as a trainer, facilitator and dispute resolution consultant world-wide. An award winning trainer and writer, her books on negotiation and mediation are published internationally, and her work has appeared in the English, German, Russian and Chinese languages. She is editor of the book series,Global Trends in Dispute Resolutionand the Kluwer Mediation Blog. In addition to NADRAC, Nadja is a member of the Standards Commission of the International Mediation Institute and the Hong Kong Mediation Taskforce.

Dr Andrew Bickerdike

Dr Andrew Bickerdike is currently the CEO at Relationships Australia in Victoria where he has worked since 1999 specialising in family dispute resolution programs and mediation. He has been a member of the Family Court of Australia Expert Reference Panel since 2007, and lectured at Latrobe University from 1998 to 2004. Dr Bickerdike has qualifications in economics and behavioural science and holds a PhD from La Trobe University in Melbourne.

Mr David Fredericks

Mr David Fredericks is Deputy Secretary, Civil Justice and Legal Service Groups in the Attorney-General’s Department. He is responsible for matters including legal services provided to the Australian Government, federal court administration, family law, administrative law, international law, human rights, legal assistance, indigenous policy, native title, classification and legislative drafting. Before being promoted to this role, Mr Fredericks was First Assistant Secretary in the Priorities and Coordination Division. Before joining the Department in 2010, he held senior Ministerial Adviser roles, including for the Prime Minister and Minister for Climate Change.  Mr Fredericks has also served as the Director of the Economic Reform Unit in the Solomon Islands Ministry of Finance on secondment from the Australian Treasury and he was previously Executive Director of the Policy Division in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet. He also practised as a barrister in Sydney for 5 years. 

Ms Dianne Gibson

Ms Dianne Gibson is a psychologist withextensive experiencein family dispute resolution policy and law. She recently retired from the position of Director Child Dispute Services in the Family Court of Australia where she was responsible for child dispute services nationally. She has workedin the community sector as Executive Director of Family Services Australiaand as the CEO of Relationships Australia (National). MsGibson is a past member of the Family Law Council and past Chair of the Board of Management, and later the Advisory Council, of the Australian Institute of Family Studies. MsGibson has lectured in family dispute resolution at University of Technology, Sydney for the past 15 years.

The Hon Justice Andrew Greenwood

Justice Andrew Greenwood is a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia. Prior to being appointed to the Federal Court in 2005 Justice Greenwood practised extensively in the fields of intellectual property, competition law and commercial litigation as a partner at Minter Ellison. Justice Greenwood was the Queensland Chair of the Law Council of Australia’s Trade Practices and Intellectual Property Committees. Justice Greenwood holds the position of Adjunct Professor in intellectual property and competition law, at the University of Queensland’s T C Beirne School of Law and sits on the Advisory Board of the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University.

Ms Margaret Halsmith

Ms Margaret Halsmith is Director and Principal Mediator of Halsmith Consulting Pty Limited, through which she mediates full time in a wide variety of settings for business, government, families and individuals. She holds Bachelors degrees in Psychology and Arts, is a registered Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner and is accredited by the International Mediation Institute, at the advanced level by LEADR and also under the National Mediator Accreditation System. She has taught Dispute Resolution at Edith Cowan University, University of Notre Dame Australia, Curtin University and the University of Western Australia. Ms Halsmith is the Chair of LEADR Australasia. She is also the Deputy Convenor of the Western Australian Dispute Resolution Association under the auspices of which she convened the sub-committee responsible for the National Mediator Accreditation System. She was Co-convenor of the National Mediation Conference held in Perth in 2008 and has continued as a member of that Board since 2006.

Mr Tom Howe QC

Mr Tom Howe QC is the Chief Counsel, Dispute Resolution at the Australian Government Solicitor (AGS), where he has worked for the last 25 years. Prior to joining AGS, he worked in private practice and as a solicitor with ACT Legal Aid. He is a member of the Federal Litigation Section of the Law Council, and the Council of the ACT Bar Association.

Mr Peter Kell

Mr Peter Kell is a Deputy Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. He chairs the Adjudication Committee and is a member of the Enforcement and Communications Committees. Mr Kell serves on the Consumer Policy Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the federal government’s Financial Literacy Foundation. Before joining the ACCC, Mr Kell was the chief executive of CHOICE (the Australian Consumers Association) and a board member of the global consumer organisation Consumers International. He has extensive experience in economic and financial sector regulation and market reform issues in Australia and internationally. Mr Kell also worked at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as executive director of consumer protection and as its New South Wales regional commissioner. Mr Kell has a BA with Honours in Economics.

Mr Stephen Lancken

Mr Stephen Lancken practises as a mediator and teacher and is the Australian Principal of the Trillium Group. He is also Program Director in Conflict Management and Negotiation for AGSM Executive Programs. Mr Lancken is a member of the New South Wales Law Society's Dispute Resolution Committee. He is an accredited mediator under the National Mediator Accreditation System and an accredited specialist in mediation, dispute resolution and commercial litigation with the Law Society of New South Wales. Mr Lancken is also a director of the Mediator Standards Board.

Ms Helen Marks

Ms Helen Marks is the Director of Alternative Resolutions and Equity at the Department of Defence. Before this appointment, she was the Director of the Alternative Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management program for Defence. Ms Marks worked for many years as a legal officer with the Royal Australian Navy before retiring in January 2005. She has qualifications in Law and Psychology and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Criminology, Graduate Certificate in Family Mediation and a Masters Degree in Military Law. She has extensive experience in mediation, conflict resolution, group facilitation and negotiation skills.

Dr Gaye Sculthorpe

Dr Gaye Sculthorpe is a full time member of the National Native Title Tribunal based in Melbourne. She mediates native title applications in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. She was a member of the Tribunal's Agreement-Making Strategy Group which produced a guide to mediating native title applications. She is a former member of the Australian Heritage Council and has held senior positions at Museum Victoria. Dr Sculthorpe has qualifications in anthropology and history and holds a PhD from La Trobe University in Melbourne. She is a descendent of the Pyemmairrener people of north-east Tasmania. She is also an accredited mediator under the National Mediator Accreditation System.

Ms Lindsay Smith

Ms Lindsay Smith is the Executive Manager for the Dispute Resolution Branch of the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General. She was formerly the Coordinator of the Dispute Resolution Branch's Mackay Dispute Resolution Centre. She is a former Deputy Principal of Mackay State High School and consulted on conflict resolution at FH Collins Secondary School in Canada. She is an accredited mediator under the National Mediator Accreditation System and an appointed mediator under the Dispute Resolution Centres Act 1990.

Professor Tania Sourdin

Professor Tania Sourdin is the Foundation Chair and Director of the Australian Centre for Court and Justice System Innovation (ACCJSI) at Monash University. She is a member of several boards and advisory bodies including the Board of the Mediator Standards and the Law Council of Australia Collaborative Law Committee. Professor Sourdin is also a member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, as well as a number of panels as an advanced mediator. Professor Sourdin wrote the National Mediator Accreditation Standards and has led national research projects and produced important recommendations for court and non adversarial justice reform. She has conducted research into conflict resolution and disputant perceptions in eight courts and four independent conflict schemes and currently has two major evaluation projects in this area and an ARC project in online dispute resolution. Professor Sourdin has also written and published widely in several areas of ADR, including online dispute resolution, mediation, collaborative lawyering and organisational change.