Michael Locke

I have practised as a lawyer in the areas of family law and civil litigation for 33 years, and as a mediator for about the last 10 years. I am a senior lawyer for child practitioner in the Family Court.

My legal experience enables me to provide mediating parties with context, where is sought, of what the alternatives to a negotiated outcome may look like, which is often useful in enabling parties to focus on achieving a negotiated outcome.

Going to court should in most cases be a last resort. Negotiated outcomes are speedier, cheaper, more predictable and less risky (since the parties can agree to the outcome), and usually offer a solution that is more tailor-made than an outcome imposed by a decision-maker.

My approach is to work in a fair, neutral, and straightforward way with the particular parties and the particular dispute, and to apply a principled basis to finding a realistic and durable negotiated outcome.