Week 8: I'm Off to Australia for an ADR Conference!

Scaling Up. 
Working at an International Level

When I decided to move to Qatar, I had hoped to scale up my ADR teaching, training, and practice.  In the U.S., I held the state-wide leadership positions in the Virginia Mediation Network and positions on Virginia Supreme Court-sponsored mediation ethics committees and grievance boards.  I loved those opportunities to serve my community.  

However, because of the financial constraints of my law school, I could not actively participate at a national level in leadership of the Section of Dispute Resolution of the ABA or of the Association for Conflict Resolution. Towards the end of my stay in the U.S., my law school was not even funding my attendance at the annual conferences of these organizations. 

By moving to Qatar and joining the faculty of a well-funded university, I hoped to grow professionally and scale up to a more international ADR practice.  

I was lucky, in hindsight, to leap-frog national level participation when too many barriers existed to my greater involvement.  

So, I am excited to participate in my first international ADR conference on a continent I've always wanted to visit.  The conference is entitled: the "2d International Conference on Non-Adversarial Justice," sponsored by the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration.

I will be speaking on the this topic: "Barriers to ADR in the Arabian Gulf: A Conversation About Training, Capacity, and Culture."  I will be joined by 75 speakers over the three-day event. 

In my next few blogs, I will share some of the research that I will presenting at the conference.