Why ALTERNATE dispute resolution?

Welcome to my first followers!

As I said yesterday I will be sharing something of myself and my own experience as well as knowledge, thoughts and ideas relating to dispute resolution.

In terms of my own background, when I was very young I wanted to be a doctor. That dream however started to fade when I began to realize that I really couldn't handle blood. Also from the age of 14 onwards I started to develop a penchant for public speaking, debating and...politics. From then I knew I wanted to be a lawyer, although I think I really idealized my future ability to make the world a better place!

At 17 I went to 'Maritzburg Varsity and went on to complete a BA in Law and then an LLB. I served articles and was later admitted as an attorney at 24, and then, as a conveyancer, later that year. At the same time I took a BIG step and started my own practice which I ran for the next nine years and gained wonderful legal experience in both general practice and property law.

Six years into practice, I ran into some, shall we say, "brutal" life experience: my marriage hit the rocks in a big way and I was diagnosed with major depression. The next three and a half years would see me land in hospital seven times relating to depression, and also warring against a serious prescription drug addiction.

Through all this I tried to navigate the quagmire of a nightmarish divorce which took more than two years to conclude and seriously stripped me of just about everything emotional, physical and spiritual.

It was only after I stopped practising law and had healed to a certain extent from the brutality of the preceeding years, that I yearned to do something positive with my education, my legal background and my life experience.

Enter mediation...Watch this space.

Thanks again for joining me. Until next time...peace.