Darrin is a lawyer but a different type of lawyer
When Darrin was in law school his wife Rachel (pronounced Rachelle) worked at a law firm in Kingston. There was a staff party that Darrin and Rachel went to. The lawyers were upstairs having a cocktail. The spouses of the women who worked at the firm were in the basement having a beer. Darrin naturally migrated to the group in the basement and ended up making a few good friends. The comment Darrin often hears is; ‘you do not sound like a lawyer’. Given the current status of our profession that is unfortunately a compliment. Darrin often says: “I am a normal human being – I just happen to be a lawyer”.
Darrin Sees both sides of the Issues
Given Darrin’s vast experience, he has literally seen it all. It is very rare that an issue or topic comes up that Darrin has not dealt with previously. This is extremely beneficial in mediation because Darrin has a good idea of what BOTH spouses are thinking because for decades he has represented both sides in family law.
If there is a concern about negotiations directly between the parties, then you can consider Collaborative Family Law or CFL. This is very similar to mediation – they are ‘cousin’ processes. There are two parties and two legal professionals involved to negotiate a resolution. You can google Collaborative FamilyLaw Ottawa. Darrin has been involved with CFL in Ottawa since its inception.
Ottawa Family LawThere is a misconception that to go to mediation everyone has to have a deal cut ahead of time and the mediator is just ‘writing it up’. Nope. The purpose of mediation is to work through all issues, difficult and ‘easy’ issues. After all, what is the alternative – turn your lives over to lawyers, write them a blank cheque and say have at it? Try mediation – the success rate is over 95%. But, if you come, come looking for a solution, not a problem because as a wise person once said if you look for a problem, you will find a problem, if you look for a solution, then you will find a solution.
We can work with you regardless of where you reside. Since COVID we have moved online and it is working very well. By using video calls, we can mediate anywhere in Ontario whether you live in Ottawa, Renfrew, Toronto or Bobcaygeon (shout out to the great Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip).
Many mediators work on their own. They make their own copies, set up appointments etc. Here, we recognize that lawyers do not have to do it all – lawyers are not ‘smarter’ or ‘better’ than others. We have an excellent team to assist. Lauren is trained as a law clerk and has many years of experience. Erin is at the front desk and deals with the administrative work. Erin is often the first point of contact for clients. Rachel is Darrin’s spouse of over 30 years. She has almost 40 years of experience in the legal field. Since there is a team, the process does not get bogged down because there is only one person to move the file along. As Rachel often says to Darrin: you do not actually do anything anymore, you are just the salesperson. There is a lot of truth to this – Darrin develops the plan and the team implements the plan. The benefit to the parties is that there are more people to assist and all of the other people assisting are less expensive than Darrin, so this helps to keep the costs down.