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Certified Mediator
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Current Position & Background
Róisín is a founding Partner of ARC Mediation, founded in 2010, is the Chair of the Irish Professional Mediators’ Organisation CLG, and is a legal academic and qualified barrister.
Róisín has completed almost 600 mediations since 2009 including Family (Separation/Divorce), Work-place, Farm family, SME mediations, Founder Disputes, Commercial disputes, Succession disputes, Wards of Court and EPA (Enduring Power of Attorney) disputes and Personal Injury claims. Many of these cases have been referred to Róisín after legal proceedings have been initiated, and the majority of cases subsequently came to a mutually satisfactory agreement.
In recent years she is mediating international business and international family mediation cases.
She is a valued expert and legal academic and was awarded a Ph.D. in 2014 for her doctoral research on Judicial Separation and Divorce in the Circuit Court, Ireland. She continues to carry out academic research with a particular focus on mediation and civil justice systems and publishes regularly in peer reviewed journals/books and is a frequent guest presenter at seminars/conferences both nationally and internationally.
- August 2023 – Róisín was appointed by University College Cork as an external panel member to the Programme Approval Panel for the LLM/PG Dip Mediation and Dispute Resolution
- June 2023 Invited by Department of Justice to participate in the Family Justice Development Forum
- June 2022 – June 2023: She and two fellow researchers, Dr Sinead Conneely and Dr Niamh Maguire, were awarded the tender by the Judicial Council’s Sentencing Information and Guidelines Committee, ‘SCIG’, for a confidential research project. The research project titled ‘Study of District Court Judges’ views on Sentencing & Relationship Violence’ forms part of the ongoing work of SGIC, who identified sentencing in the District Court as an area in need of study.
- July 2021: She successfully completed the barrister-at-law degree at King’s Inns and was called to the Bar.
- June 2020: Dr O’Shea was appointed by the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection as a member of the Child Maintenance Review Group (2020-2022) chaired by former Circuit Court Judge Catherine Murphy. Róisín was a Director of the Mediators Institute of Ireland 2015-2021.
- May 2019: She was appointed as an external independent evaluator for the revalidation of a Qualifications Ireland (QQI).
Róisín is the Principal Investigator for ‘The Family Mediation Project’ (2015-2023), trialing a family mediation process she developed, informed by global innovations, the final phase of which commenced in 2023. She and her colleague Dr Conneely carried out empirical research attending family law sittings with Ministerial consent in the District Courts in Ireland 2017-2019. She was invited by Government in 2019 to make an expert submission on the “Reform of the Family Law System” including the use of ADR.
Practice Areas
Róisín primarily works in the area of civil disputes; including Family mediation involving parenting, financial arrangements, legal separation and divorce (often inter-jurisdictional), farm family and succession/probate disputes and inter-sibling disputes. She has mediated business disputes involving companies or partnerships, Founder disputes, contract disputes, workplace disputes, and personal injury disputes.
Mediation Style
Róisín’s preferred mediation model is co-mediation and her mediation style is primarily facilitative, but she also uses transformative and evaluative (option development as provided in section 8 (4) of the Mediation Act 2017). She takes a pragmatic approach, assisting parties to find workable solutions, based on the facts and the needs of the parties. She ensures that the parties are well informed and receive legal advice where they intend the mediation settlement to be legally binding between them and in international cases assists the parties to agree where any agreement would be enforceable. Her practice ARC Mediation exclusively offers co-mediation and ensures that the mediators are a good fit in terms of competencies for the issues that are the subject of a dispute.
Mediation Experience
Róisin has significant experience as a mediator completing almost 600 cases since 2009 including Family (divorce/separation), Work-place, Farm family, SME mediations, Commercial disputes, Succession disputes, Wards of Court and EPA (Enduring Power of Attorney) disputes and Personal Injury claims. Her preferred model of mediation is co-mediation and is expert at managing multi-party disputes and disputes involving legal representatives, both on a national and international level.
Mediation Education
Completed 60 hour mediation training with Roundtable, Cork, 2008
Awarded 32 hour “Separating Couples” equivalence by the Mediators Institute of Ireland 2010
Child consultation Training, Dr Teresa Graham, 2011 and 2017
Family Mediators Association (UK) FMA Child Inclusive Mediation Training Awareness and Understanding 2020
Member of the Mediators Institute of Ireland 2008-2021 – completed annual CPD requirements including seminars/conferences/workshops/consultations, sharing & learning, presentations.
ADR module 2021 Kings Inns barrister-at-law degree
Teaching & Mentoring
Participation in the delivery of various mediation and conflict management training programmes including;
Trainer for Friarylaw 60 hour mediation programme
Trainer for 32 Hour Family Mediation “Separating Couples” programme accredited by the Mediators Institute of Ireland 2019-2021
Trainer for 32 Hour Family Mediation programme accredited by the Irish Professional Mediators’ Organisation 2021-2023
Chamber of Commerce approved Skillnet trainer for workplace conflict management
Regional Leader and Group Mentor Waterford Chamber of Commerce Regional Leaders Programme 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.
Conference Presentations
Most recent;
October 2023: Presenter, ‘Mediation and Probate Disputes’, seminar hosted by Erin International
September 2023: Panelist ‘ Peace-making beyond border’ Peacemaking Colloquium
May 2022: Guest Panelist at Symposium hosted by the ADR Institute of BC Canada: Mandatory Mediation domestically and abroad.
February 2022: Guest Presenter at webinar hosted by the ADR Institute of Canada: Regulation of Mediation: Should the Irish Mediation Act 2017 be considered as a Model for Canada.
January 2020 Keynote speaker at ‘Mediation: Contemporary Issues’ mediation seminar at King’s Inns, Dublin
May 2019 presented at the AFCC annual conference on research findings Domestic Violence and the Irish District Court.
February 2018 keynote speaker at Windsor Castle speaking on ‘Modern families, modern family justice: supporting family relationships in fast changing socio-political-economic climates’, a St George’s House European Consultation.
February 2018 presented on the Family Mediation Project at the Nuffield Foundation’s ‘Better decisions in private family law…’ seminar London
Mediation Publications
Most recent;
Conneely, Dempsey, O’Shea, Rumley, ‘Online Family Mediation Post Covid-19: A Practitioner’s Perspective’, Irish Journal of Family Law (2022) 25(4) I.J.F.L. pgs 73-79
Conneely, Dempsey, O’Shea, ‘Custody and Access in the District Court’, Irish Journal of Family Law (2021) 24(4) I.J.F.L. pgs 84 – 92
Conneely, Dempsey, O’Shea, ‘Ireland’s Mediation Adventure – A practitioner flying on “mutinous winds”, IMI blog post, 14th July 2021
Conneely, Dempsey, O’Shea, ‘Child Maintenance and the District Court’, Irish Journal of Family Law (2021) 24 (2) I.J.F.L.
Conneely, Dempsey, O’Shea, “On Such a Full Sea are We Now Afloat” Family Mediation in Practice in the Wake of the Mediation Act 2017 (2020) 23(3) I.J.F.L.
Conneely, Dempsey, O’Shea ‘Family Mediation and the District Court’’ Irish Journal of Family Law (2020) 23 (2) I.J.F.L.
Conneely, O’Shea ‘Family mediation: the Irish perspective’ Chapter 4 in ‘Family Mediation Contemporary Issues’ Bloomsbury Professional, May 2020
‘Domestic Violence in the District Court’ Irish Journal of Family Law (2019) 22 (4) I.J.F.L. Conneely, Dempsey, O’Shea
Conneely, O’Shea ‘Innovative Family Mediation Research Initiative Embedded in the Community in Ireland’ Family Court Review, (2019) Wiley, Vol 57, Issue 3
Affiliations
International Mediation Institute
Irish Professional Mediators’ Organisation CLG
Association of Family & Conciliation Courts (AFCC)
GEMME – European organisation of Judges in favour of mediation
Family Lawyers Association of Ireland
Code of Conduct
IPMO
Complaint Process
Professional Indemnity Insurance
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