What am I ?
- A registered legal practitioner since 1981.
- An Accredited Mediator since 2000 and now fully accredited under the new national accreditation standard.
- An Arbitrator since 2000.
- The holder of three tertiary degrees including a Master of Laws.
My Credo
My market credo is that if you are a highly skilled expert at what you do then you should show your own faith in yourself and your skills by insisting that you only be paid if you obtain an agreed successful outcome, as mutually defined by you and your client, at the time your services are retained.
Isn’t this what "the customer" wants in all other segments of the marketplace? Do people want to pay for a poor meal? Do they want to pay for defective plumbing services? Do they want to pay for expensive business consulting if it fails to improve their bottom line? Do they want to pay for an expensive medical negligence suit if the suit fails? Do they want to pay for a better TV screen if it fails to deliver a better picture?
The answer is of course "No". In each case they expect only to pay for a product or a service if that product or service delivers the expected result.
But if the product or service does produce the expected and hoped for result or outcome that same client or customer is quite prepared to pay a very good price for it – even above an average "market price".
The Better Way
The better way is setting up a process to analyse, manage and resolve the dispute that has these essential ingredients -
- A genuine willingness and intention of the parties in dispute to opt out of the combat zone and mindset that is referred to as "litigation" and embrace an alternative approach to dispute resolution that focuses entirely on the parties themselves, with expert assistance, determining what the true issues in the dispute and how they resolve those issues to their mutual satisfaction;
- The right environment, culture and system within which to assist the parties to manage and resolve their own dispute;
- The right level of knowledge and expertise being applied to assist the parties to manage and resolve their dispute on their own.
My success rate
My success rate to date with applying the "better way" to dispute management and resolution has been very high – about a 95% success rate. This means that in just 5% of the cases I take on, that meet my carefully designed criteria and satisfy my pre-conditions, my efforts are in vain and I do not receive a fee for my services except at the parties discretion. Some do elect to pay me even without achieving their preferred outcome as they appreciate the amount of skill and effort I devote to helping them achieve finality to their dispute.
How to secure
my services
Simply telephone me or email me. My contact details are all located on the website. I would love to be of service to you.
JUST CLICK HERE to go straight to the Contact page.
About me
Hi, I am
Chris Whitelaw and this is my official website.
I have launched this website to better communicate what I stand for and what I have to offer directly to the
dispute resolution marketplace.
Yes, I am all of these things but each one of those descriptions does not adequately describe who I am today, 28 years after I became a qualified lawyer.
I am also an entrepreneur and an investor with a flare for property and the Internet.
I believe in what is called "social enterprise" which is about involving yourself with enterprise that serves some useful social purpose - a combination of free market enterprise and social service.
I am an ardent adherent of creative value-based market enterprise where the market pays you for the value delivered rather than the ‘at the coal face’ daily grind labour-based enterprise where all you have to sell someone is your time and where the fee or price demanded for that labour has no correlation to the actual value delivered to the consumer.
I am an emerging author and I am under contract with a major publisher to finish an exciting book about "success" in the law at the end of 2009. The book will explore theme of success from all angles (i.e. 'holistic success') through a unique and compelling dialogue with some of the country’s top lawyers.
- I am a guitarist.
- I am a linguist.
- I am a a doting father of my two beautiful daughters.
- I am a world traveller.
But my most essential and vital professional skill that I offer to the marketplace is that of an EXPERT DISPUTE RESOLVER. I am an avid student and teacher of creative dispute resolution machinery and strategies.
I get paid on results only
I am a passionate believer in working for clients on a "results only" basis – which means that I will only allow myself to get paid by a client or by parties that bring a dispute to me seeking assistance to resolve if I can, by applying my skills, produce a successful outcome for the client or the parties where the definition of a 'successful outcome' is expressly agreed to by myself and my client.
CONSIDER THIS - How many other professionals do you know who are willing to put themselves on the line like that?
Why work on a results only basis?
Because it makes perfect sense when you think about it and conforms to marketplace expectation just about everywhere else and in every other industry. It is also a just and fair model of service delivery. It is the antithesis and counterpoint to a model of service
delivery that is still prevalent and pervasive in the delivery of legal services -
TIME COSTING, where a client is billed for every minute of professional time spent regardless of the outcome obtained or achieved for the client. The public and business hates time costing with a vengeance and superior court judges have often singled it out as being unjustified and an impediment to access to justice.
It is billing for time spent, rather than for outcomes delivered, that has become the Bain of the legal services and dispute resolution services industry. There are many reasons for this approach, some good and some bad. But the net outcome is very bad for the customer, the client.
The cost of services rendered in this fashion is increasingly unaffordable and is putting skilled dispute resolution services beyond the reach of many people. They are being forced more and more to make do with budget rate and second rate services. It is what is termed "poor man's justice".
Even if the consumer of the services can well afford the price charged, there is still a negative sentiment expressed in the market place to having to pay ‘though the nose’ for ongoing services when the consumer (client) finds it hard to measure the value being delivered. Their preference is always to get a clear result first, with the value plain to see, and then, usually without complaint, to pay a premium price in return to reward the value provider for a job well done. This is the market place working in optimal fashion – as it should. A fair price for the value delivered.
So this website presents to the public a range of dispute resolution services offered by a highly skilled professional, trained in various methods of dispute analysis and dispute resolution strategies who is taking a clear an unambiguous stand on this issue.
Provided the client or the parties that seek to retain my services agree to abide with my terms for providing my services on this basis then they will secure my services on that basis.
Self-determination and empowerment
Integral to the service model that I bring to the market place is the concept of self-determination and empowerment.
I want to empower people as much as possible to resolve their own disputes using a format, methods and strategies that, with appropriate expert assistance will allow them to maintain total control and ownership of their dispute from beginning to end AND STAY OUT OF THE COURTS AND TRIBUNALS.
I want to be part of the vanguard of dispute resolvers that are slowly but surely educating the public that there is a better way than locking themselves into combat mode and seeking to resolve their disputes by employing lawyers to fight their battles in courts and tribunals where through the entire process they hand over all the control and power to influence and decide the outcome of the dispute to their lawyers and the judges who ultimately decide who wins and who loses.
UNDERSTAND THIS – In the majority of disputes that proceed in this fashion there are no Winners, just Losers and masses of discontent. This is why people love to hate lawyers and the legal system even if they can claim to have “won” the case in court. In most cases the price they had to pay to be the “winner” left them with little joy and satisfaction at the end of it all.
I want to bring a DIFFERENT MODEL OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION to the forefront of peoples minds and be part of an active EDUCATION CAMPAIGN to show and convince as many people as we can that THERE IS A BETTER WAY.
My tools of trade
My tools of trade to expertly assist people in dispute to manage and resolve their dispute as quickly and cost effectively as possible and with the minimum amount of stress, bother and disruption of their personal lives are these -
- My research and study into different personality profiles that equips me to better handle and manage different personality types in the context of dispute management and dispute resolution methods;
- My personal communication skills;
- My Mediation skills gained as a Mediator since first accredited in 2000;
- My 29 years of legal practice including 16 years as a Barrister working principally in the courts and tribunals of New South Wales, Australia;
- My deep understanding of the formal “litigation” system and
alternative dispute resolution methodologies;
- The Agreements I put into place between the parties and myself prior to accepting a dispute resolution retainer.
