Consensus Family Lawyers

Consensus is a business established by Farrar Gesini & Dunn Family Lawyers. The new business will be headed by Olivia Gesini (right) & Juliette Ford (left).

Farrar Gesini & Dunn Family Lawyers was established in 1995 as the first specialist family law firm in Canberra and grew to one of Australia’s largest three family law practices. Farrar Gesini & Dunn has pio¬neered and developed collaborative law in Australia since 2005.

Out of Court solutions provide people with a private, dignified, discrete divorce, even in circumstances where the relationship is difficult and communication has broken down.

“This is key for Canberra because we have such a small community, aspects of the Court proc¬ess are very public and can be damaging and demeaning,” Olivia Gesini said.

Consensus is run by some of Canberra’s best and most experienced family lawyers.

“Consensus was born from our experiences practising traditional family law. We have found that there is a demand for lawyers to provide Out of Court solutions. Most people are of the view that traditional litigation pathways don’t meet their expectations,” Ms Ford said.

Those who do opt for a courtroom solution also expect quick, fair and just outcomes in which the bad guy is punished and the good guy rewarded.

“Many people think their first day in court is their last, rather than the beginning of a long drawn out expensive process with the cost of litigation coming out of the family assets,” Ms Ford said.

The Australian legal system doesn’t publicly fund property settlements.

“There is no pot of gold, insurance company, com¬pensation payment or tax deductibility for the legal costs in property settlement disputes – it all comes out of the couple’s after tax dollars,” Ms Gesini said.

Consensus is committed to Out of Court solutions.

“We aren’t just lawyers dabbling in non court solu¬tions. We are putting our whole practice into this,” Ms Gesini said.

Consensus offers a range of Out of Court solutions including collaboration facilitation, negotiation and arbitration.

“No one option is suitable for all clients. We bring all of the options to people and tailor a particular process suitable to their needs,” Ms Ford said.

In Australia one in three first marriages break down; one in two second marriages break down and the fig¬ures are even higher for de-facto relationships.

“Like death, divorce is an unpalatable topic but one which must be faced. Although people find it difficult to talk about death, most people have a Will. Planning for a possible separation should be the same” Ms Gesini said.

Consensus brings lawyers with strengths in court¬room litigation to Out of Court solutions.

“Lots of lawyers say that they negotiate and help parties settle but our difference is that we are do¬ing this outside of the Court system,” Ms Gesini said, “Consensus represents a challenging and more satisfactory way of practising family law in the 21st Century,” Ms Gesini finished.

Traditional divorce process
1. See a lawyer.
2. Lawyer gives initial advice and drafts letter of offer to other side.
3. The letter of offer is usually an ambit claim and requires the other side to respond and seek their own legal advice (they are usually told if they don’t respond within a certain period Court proceedings will commence). The letter may sound abrasive, legalistic and intimidating.
4. Other party gets legal advice and responds with either a similar ambit claim or a request for further information.
5. Negotiations continue through a paper war until it is resolved or it heads to Court.
6. Court process takes 9-12 months.

Collaborative divorce process
1. Client sees lawyer.
2. Lawyer talks about options to settle.
3. A letter is sent to other party inviting them to take up collaboration as an option to resolving outstanding issues (letter is friendly, non threatening and non litigious).
4. If the other side engages a collaborative lawyer then the majority of negotiations occur through face to face meetings until resolution is achieved (other experts are engaged as required).

Both parties, their lawyers and other advisors sign a contract agreeing that the matter will be resolved through negotiation and that they will not represent their clients if it does goes to Court.

Out of Court options:

Collaboration: The representatives of both parties sign a contact and agree not to go to court. The lawyers are focused on settlement right from the outset. All of the lawyers’ knowledge and understanding is directed to an Out of Court solution. Lawyers in this process aren’t adversarial and don’t put forward positions that are unwinnable. Each lawyer in the process still represents their own client’s interests but does this in a non-competitive interest-based environment.

Facilitation: This service is offered by one of Consensus’ senior lawyers, Robert Routh. Mr outh is a former Registrar of the Family Court of Australia. In the course of that role Mr outh conducted over a 1000 settlement conferences in which lawyers and clients attended relating to litigated property settlements. Facilitation is a timely and cost effective way of helping parties to reach a final solution – or when negotiations through their lawyers have stalled. People can come with or without lawyers to this process whether or not Court proceedings have already commenced.

Negotiation: Negotiation can cover prenuptial agreements, cohabitation agreements, and binding financial agreements between couples who are still together, whether they are married, about to marry or contemplating entering into a domestic relationship. Consensus can also negotiate parenting agreements for same sex couples and through negotiation assist people with family businesses to restructure their business and put in place new corporate governance after a divorce. Post divorce some couples can continue working together.

Arbitration: In August 2007 Chris Crowley joined Farrar Gesini & Dunn as a consultant. He will now be one of the key members in Consensus Family Lawyers. He is an experienced mediator and arbitrator and has been in practice for more than 36 years. Arbitration is a process where if a separating couple cannot reach an agreement, rather than commencing proceedings and waiting for a hearing date, the separating couple engage a arbitrator to make binding decisions on the issues in dispute.

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