When I was a young lawyer, my mentor encouraged me to teach at the Bar Admission Course. I had never taught anything and thought I would never be accepted for such a role. But she was right, and it was one of the best decisions of my career.
My mentor –Gloria Epstein— went on to become a Court of Appeal judge and I have continued to teach thanks to her.
I started teaching in a University of Toronto affiliated program—Toronto Advanced Professional Education. That led to adjunct roles at Humber College, Osgoode Hall Law School and Western Law. I went on to obtain a LLM in ADR which gave me further insight into the world of adult education.
All this gave me the credentials and experience to build my own institute, the Riverdale Mediation Training program.
Teaching what you love—in my case, it was family law and dispute resolution– is such a gift. It helps you become a true expert in your field. And it is such a joy to share your love of a field with professionals whose experience in life and work has brought them to the realization that they want something more. As a trainer, you can change careers and, sometimes, lives.
For me, my love of teaching led to the wonderful training collaboration I have today with so many colleagues in the field of family mediation, arbitration and parenting coordination. With them, I have been able to share my love of this field with hundreds of budding dispute resolution practitioners around the world.
Being a trainer has offered me the privilege of interviewing great leaders in my field, recording their wisdom and sharing it broadly with new family mediators, lawyers, arbitrators and parenting coordinators.
I still seize any opportunity to speak with students who are just entering the field. I recently heard from Jane Kidner, an adjuct professor at the University of Toronto’s law school. She had invited me to speak to her law class on family law and dispute resolution last fall. With an amazing family lawyer colleague, Melanie Battaglia, I had prepared and presented a short lecture on the fundamentals of family mediation, and did a demonstration with some of the students. It was so much fun, so rewarding.
And I won’t lie; the feedback from the students when you put your heart into your teaching is the cherry on top!
“You were a clear hit with the students. Despite the fact that none intended to practice family law, they love your guest lecture the best! And loved the demo. The reviews for the overall course were A++ and a number of students also commented on how much they loved the family law class.”
So, my advice to anyone reading this: do not pass up an opportunity to teach. You will never regret it!