The need to resolve disputes in a ‘more constructive way’

Disenchanted with adversarial processes that she felt weren’t serving clients, Anne-Marie Cade sought and discovered a new approach in parenting coordination. Speaking to Lawyers Weekly following a Churchill Fellowship on the subject (which saw her visit 16 global cities to explore such practices), she unpacks why parenting coordination is so essential in family law matters in Australia moving forward. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Ms Cade, an accredited mediator, lawyer, and parenting coordinator, about how she got a Churchill Fellowhip, what parenting coordination is and why she sees it as being so important, her global research into the implementation of such an approach in family law matters, what Australia can learn from overseas examples, and the receptiveness of Australian practitioners to parenting coordination. Ms Cade also reflects on the need for such an approach in the Australian market at present, what jurisdictions here should avoid from global counterparts, her predictions for the uptake of parenting coordination in Australia by year’s end, challenges she foresees to its success and popularity as an approach, and what excites her about her work in this space moving forward.