Mary Walker has been at the forefront of ADR in Australia for the last 30 years. During this period, as a member of an independent Bar, Mary has arbitrated, mediated, negotiated, facilitated multi- party, environmental and community disputes, designed dispute resolution systems and provided expert appraisal and ombudsman services in respect to thousands of disputes referred by solicitors, industry and government bodies and corporations both domestic and international. Mary has mediated over 4,000 matters. Mary is a member of many mediation and arbitration panels including the Supreme Court of NSW and the Singapore International Mediation Centre Panel and mediates for the Supreme Court of The Australian Capital Territory. In the first intake Mary was certified as an Investor State Mediator by CEDR, London in 2017, the JIMC-Kyoto Mediator Panel, certified IMI Mediator and IMI Mediation Advocate. She is a member of the Supreme Court of New South Wales ADR Steering Committee and is a member of the International Mediation Institute Ethics and Appraisal Committees and was a member of the original International Mediation Institute Independent Standards Commission amongst other bodies. Mary has also lectured and published extensively in ADR and mediation for example, she wrote the original Chapter in the Laws of Australia on Expert Determination and the ADR Chapter in the Bar Association of NSW, Centenary Essays, No Mere Mouthpiece. She was sponsored by Harvard University to teach mediation with Professor Frank Sander in 1995. Appointed a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at Bond University in 2007, a lecturer in Commercial Mediation in the Masters of Law Degree at the University of Sydney (2009), in Mass Torts and Dispute System Design at Stanford University in the United States (2012) and lectured in dispute resolution as a member of the Law Faculty of the University of Technology (2014-2015) and previously in arbitration with Professor Jennifer David in the mid-1990’s.  She has been a guest lecturer in ADR at many universities for example, Mary was a guest lecturer in the Mediation of Multi-party, Complex and Cross Border Disputes at Tilburg University in The Netherlands (2017). Mary was awarded the J H McClemens Memorial Prize No 1 in Criminology. Mary was appointed Chair of the College of Law Dispute Resolution Academic Advisory Committee (2016).  Mary was invited by The Hague

Institute for Global Justice to join an expert meeting on resolving complex disputes, cross border disputes and the case management of mass disputes (2012). Mary is currently Chair of the NSW Bar Association ADR Committee (2018-2021) and previously Chair of the NSW Bar Association Arbitration and ADR Committee (1996-1999). Mary was previously Chair of the Law Council of Australia (LCA) Expert Standing

Committee on ADR (2004-2013), Chair of the LCA International Law Section (ILS) ADR Committee (2013-2016), is currently Chair of the LCA Federal Litigation and Dispute Resolution Section ADR Committee (2013-2020), a member of the ILS Executive (2017-2019), Co-Chair of the LCA ILS International.

Arbitration Committee (2016-2020), Deputy Chair of the LCA ILS (2018-2019) and currently Chair of the LCA ILS (2019-2020). Mary was a member of the NSW Bar Council (2011-2019) and a recipient of an Australian Women Leadership Scholarship (2015), a Fellow of The Women’s College University of Sydney (2017) and was awarded The Women’s College University of Sydney Alumnae Award in 2018. Mary is internationally accredited as a Mediator and Mediator Advocate by the International Mediation Institute. Amongst other awards, Mary was awarded the Inaugural Australian Mediator of the Year Award in 2016 by the Australian Disputes Centre, again awarded Mediator of the Year in 2017 and 2018 and was also awarded International Mediator of the Year in 2018 and 2019. Mary was inducted into the Australian ADR Awards Hall of Fame as its Inaugural member in 2019 (once inducted into the Australian ADR Awards Hall of Fame, you are no longer eligible to be nominated for future ADR Awards, see here). Mary is noted in the Inaugural Doyle’s Mediator List as a Leading Mediator in 2018, 2019, 2020 and again in 2021. Mary has been recognized in the Best Lawyers List 2022. Mary is an NBN Panel Arbitrator approved by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) (2016-2023). Mary is a Fellow of the Australian Dispute Resolution Association (ADRA), awarded for “Outstanding Contribution to Australian Dispute Resolution” in 2017. Mary was Co-President of ADRA with Professor Laurence Boulle (2018-2019), Co-Vice Chair of the International Bar Association (IBA) Mediation Committee (2018), Senior Vice Chair of the IBA Mediation Committee (2019) and Co-Chair of the IBA Mediation Committee (2020-2021).  Mary is a member of the IBA and Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC) Consensual Dispute Resolution Competition (CDRC) Organising Committee (2020). Mary is also a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR Task Force on ADR and Arbitration (2020- 2021).  Mary was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) For Service to the Law in 2021.