Our People

Principals

The principals of Mediation Minds, Danielle Huntersmith and Ed Lorkin, are barristers, who believe in mediation as an effective, flexible and affordable alternative to litigation.

Danielle Huntersmith

Danielle is a nationally accredited advanced mediator. She is a barrister and a highly skilled dispute resolver, with over 25 years of experience resolving disputes in many different areas from highly complex, multi-party commercial disputes to disagreements between neighbours or members of sporting clubs. Danielle is a barrister and a principal of Mediation Minds.

Danielle sits on various mediation panels and has mediated and conciliated thousands of disputes and has also taught mediation, conciliation and conflict management to a variety of people from judges to university students. As a barrister, Danielle well understands the adversarial process and the legal perspective. It is this knowledge that drives Danielle to practice exclusively in alternative dispute resolution. Danielle mediates disputes knowing how stressful, expensive and unsatisfactory the alternative pathways through the courts and tribunals can be. Danielle brings her highly developed skills as a mediator to help parties develop and negotiate their own agreed solutions without the rigid limitations of legal “relevance” and the narrow range of outcomes possible in a court or tribunal.

Danielle’s relevant experience includes years of experience in the following roles:

• Advanced Nationally Accredited Mediator, Victorian Bar;
• Panel Member of the Liquor Licensing Panel, Victoria;
• Panel Mediator at the Office of the Small Business Commissioner, Victoria;
• Chair of the Victorian Bar Mediators Accreditation Sub-Committee;
• Vice Chair, Institute of Arbitrators & Mediators Australia, Victoria Chapter;
• Victorian Bar representative on NADRAC (national alternative resolution committee);
• Conciliator at the Financial Ombudsman’s Service; and
• Board Member, Skin & Cancer Foundation Inc.

Edwin Lorkin

Ed has many years of experience resolving disputes in a wide variety of areas. Ed is a mediator who has been a barrister for more than 30 years. His highly developed legal, analytical and facilitative skills allow him to resolve disputes in a multitude of ways. Ed has been instrumental in assisting parties to achieve negotiated outcomes in matters ranging from complex Federal white collar criminal law cases through to major commercial leasing disputes.

Ed is a principal of Mediation Minds and is convinced that almost all disputes can be successfully mediated as a much more efficient and effective alternative to entering into the uncertainties of court or tribunal litigation. He believes that a far more satisfactory result for both parties is likely to be achieved through mediation than through the adversarial court process.

Ed’s experience in successful dispute resolution has been derived from approaching legal, organizational and commercial conflicts with a lateral and imaginative focus on achieving negotiated outcomes rather than the “winner takes all” mantra that drives the adversarial court and tribunal process.

That focus has been successfully applied over the years to resolve conflict in each of the following roles:

• As a Partner in a legal practice concentrating on disputes concerning small and medium size businesses, commercial leases, contractual arrangements and family law matters;
• As a Barrister at the Victorian Bar dealing in major case work concerning revenue and taxation, customs and excise, white collar criminal law, director’s duties, company law, military law, administrative law and Commissions of Inquiry; and
• As Federal Associate Director of Public Prosecutions for a period of five years where Ed was responsible for a nationwide organization with exposure to an extensive range of complex legal, managerial, political, law reform, policy development and organizational issues on a national and international level.