Friday 8 March 2013
Happy International Women's Day
Today is international women's day. But what does this actually mean for me: a single 30 year old woman living and working in Canberra Australia?
To be honest, most years it means attending a breakfast or lunch seminar where we hear about some of the great achievements women have made in the past. I then go back to work and continue with my day.
This year, I missed out on the lunch, but it still gives me time to reflect on where I am in life.
Growing up in Australia, and having parents who are very focused on equality for everyone, I am extremely lucky. I was brought up to believe I can achieve anything I set my mind to, no matter what my sex/race/religion etc. Today I work in a job I love, in a firm which has about 80% women (pretty good numbers for a law firm).
That said, as great as we have it here in Australia compared to elsewhere in the world, as I get older, I get more cynical about whether woman are actually equal with men, particularly on a professional level.
I still see the "boys club" environment in business. Deals done on the golf course, salary surveys which show men earn more than women for the same amount of work, women losing huge amounts of super when they take maternity leave, woman subject to different dress codes, being talked down to by men who assume we know less about business because we are female, etc etc.
But what I also see, is a new way of thinking from both sexes. One of acknowledging similarities, but also embracing differences.
What I also see, is rather than women being bitter about the differences, they are being clever and creative in coming up with their own strategies to improve their position.
For someone in my position, it is about working smarter, rather than fighting harder.
So happy International Women's Day to everyone: men and women alike. We may be different in a number of ways, but at the end of the day we just want the best for ourselves and our families. For some of us, we just get there in a different way.
Friday 1 March 2013
Family Law Collaboration: the new solution for hard cases
From my article published in B2B Canberra in June 2012
Believe it
or not, not all difficult divorces need to end up in Court. Collaboration is great
alternative to resolve family law matters and keep parties out of Court.
In
Collaboration each client is represented by his or her lawyer through a series
of meetings and all information and advice is given openly in those round table
meetings. This process helps to address any power imbalance between the
parties, so that one party is not bullied into a settlement. It also allows the
parties to structure more creative solutions which go beyond the scope of the
Court.
(visit this page for more info on the idea behind Collaborative Law: http://www.fgd.com.au/lemon.html )
What makes
Collaboration unique from other methods of dispute resolution is the contract
that is signed by each of the parties and their lawyers, committing not to go
to Court. If the matter doesn’t settle, then the lawyers cannot represent the
parties at Court. It means that instead of lawyers playing the traditional role
of a litigator and being strategic in negotiations, their goal is to settle the
dispute by agreement.
So far all
of my Collaboration matters have been “hard” cases. Often separating couples
have zero trust in the other and will take steps simply to push each other’s
buttons. In some cases, in addition to the hostility, there has been a
complicated property structure, including companies, self managed
superannuation funds and investment properties.
Was reaching a settlement via Collaboration for these matters cheap? No. Was it easy? Definitely not. Did the parties improve their relationship by the end of the process? Sadly not in all cases. Was it better, cheaper, faster and more controlled than Court? Absolutely!
If the parties had chosen the Court process, they
would have been faced with: the Court imposing timeframes on them, limited
capacity of the Court to deal with urgent issues, the lawyers only able to question
the other party directly at the end of the matter (in a hearing), being unable
to raise matters considered irrelevant by the Court, the possibility of the
Court ordering the sale of assets, possible delay in receiving a judgment and
large expenditure on lawyers, barristers and experts.
Overall,
in these cases, the Collaborative process was by no means easy, but it gave the
parties the power to control their own settlement rather than rolling the dice
with the Court.
For more information about lawyers who practice Collaborative Family Law in Canberra,
or see Canberra Collaborative Family Lawyers spread in B2B Canberra
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