By Wendy Yang -
As law students, we are often taught that litigation is an option of ‘last resort.’ If a dispute arises between parties, what are the alternative ways of resolving the dispute and what is the ‘overriding purpose’ when managing disputes?
These are some of the questions that will be discussed at the upcoming Law Society of NSW seminar ‘Practice tips for dispute resolution.’ The session will be led by Simone Rees, Co-Founder and Principal at Buchanan Rees Dispute Lawyers, who will offer a practical overview of dispute resolution from early case management to resolution of the matter.
An experienced practitioner with over two decades of experience, Rees says clients often take different approaches when it comes to resolving disagreements but in her experience most disputes settle before proceeding to court. “No client exists to run litigation … [it is] very much a distraction from their core business. It’s not something that they want to focus on … spend time and money on, or be exposed to the risk,” she explains.
Rees’ firm provides legal services to a diverse range of clients, including high worth, blue chip and government clients. Rees says one thing the firm is focused on is ascertaining at an early stage the most suitable strategy for the client. She says this will either steer the clients away from the court or remove them from it “at the earliest opportunity. …
“[T]hese days … there’s a requirement that you mediate before you get a hearing date anyway in most courts. [I]n order to [obtain] a hearing date, a lot of the judges are going to expect that you’ve undertaken some kind of mediation conference which … is a good opportunity to settle when you’re in the litigation process,” she says.
When it comes to alternative dispute resolution, parties can engage in mediation or arbitration to settle their differences. As Rees explains, mediation is a formal process whereby the parties try to resolve the dispute with the help of a neutral third party, which is usually the mediator. The mediator talks to the parties and attempts to help the parties reach a resolution however they lack the power to “impose” a result. Furthermore, “if the parties … with the assistance of the mediator can’t agree, then at the end of the day, the mediation is probably not likely to achieve an outcome,” she says.
In Rees’ experience, a common misunderstanding is that a mediator can enforce a result or impose a binding outcome. She says mediators are often there to “guide” parties and share with the clients what they think is likely to occur. However, ‘they’re … not there to provide legal advice,” she cautions.
Rees references the old adage, “if you walk away a little bit unhappy, then you’ve got a good outcome because it involves compromise and no one gets what they want.
“If you go into a mediation thinking that you’re going to get everything you want, then that’s already, I think, a misstep,” she observes.
Another common method of dispute resolution is arbitration. Rees explains that arbitration has its own set of rules and the process is very similar to court proceedings where an arbitrator presides over the proceedings in a similar way to a judge. She points out that the outcome is binding on the parties and while that can be beneficial in some instances, she acknowledges that it will be difficult for clients to appeal against an outcome they are not happy with.
‘Practice tips for dispute resolution’ will be presented in the live webinar ‘Commercial law: Mandatory rule 6.1’ on 30 March 2026. According to Rees, the session will include a discussion of what a “life cycle of litigation looks like,” the ‘best’ time for clients to consider mediation and how parties can find themselves in an arbitration.
To register, please visit the Lawinform website here.
The Law Society of New South Wales Lawyer Mediator Accreditation Scheme is exclusively available to solicitor members. Accreditation allows members to set themselves apart in the market as both practising solicitors and qualified mediators. To find out more, please click here.
