Shelley Chrest has both Chartered Mediator and Qualified Arbitrator designations along with a JD, an LLM, and extensive training from the Justice Institute of BC. She has spent years helping people navigate contentious disputes.
Her career spans mediation, arbitration, and policy development across various sectors, including workers’ compensation, local government, and social assistance. She’s driven by the core belief that every person deserves a fair process and the chance for their experience and evidence to be heard and thoroughly considered in a fair and balanced manner.
We sat down with Shelley to learn how she got into ADR, how she sees the role of mediators and arbitrators, and what she feels new practitioners need to know.
Shelley: I have a pretty eclectic background. I actually started out as a child and youth care worker. Gradually, I decided I really wanted to do public policy, so I went to law school.
I practised law for a while, which was a good foundation. My real interest and passion was public policy. After trying out various areas of law, I found administrative law, which was a great fit.
As part of my educational journey, I went back to school and did a Master of Laws. I also did lots of dispute resolution training, including from the Justice Institute of BC and Mediate BC, as well as arbitration training through ADRBC.
My initial mediation experience was through a court mediation practicum, and then as a law and policy advisor in the area of workers’ compensation, representing workers at mediations and eventually training other advisors in representing clients at mediation.
My arbitration experience includes doing local government bylaw adjudications for many years. I’ve also acted as an adjudicator in social assistance entitlement cases, and in the area of employment standards, and cases at the Better Business Bureau.
Shelley: There’s some overlap for sure. In both, there is a need for fairness and basic principles of natural justice. And you obviously need to be impartial.
I think where the roles differ is that the mediator is an impartial facilitator of settlement, whereas an arbitrator is the trier of fact. As a mediator, you’re not responsible for the outcome, you’re more responsible for the process. You’re not analyzing the stories or the facts or the evidence for the purposes of decision making.
As an arbitrator, your role is to hear the evidence and be alert to the nuances of the evidence. You need to weigh the evidence and ultimately make a decision.
There are some overlaps in terms of ensuring procedural fairness and allowing all parties to be heard. But the arbitrator is in a decision-making role—they have to assess evidence and determine what weight to give it. So there are some very different processes there.
Shelley: Training as a lawyer can be a real benefit to people who are entering the alternative dispute resolution arena. I think that legal training provides the benefit of an analytical approach, including providing a reasoned basis rationale for offers, and an ability to look at the case law to inform your decision.
Now, if you’re asking if lawyers are effective as mediators, I would say it depends on the person. Sometimes lawyers take a little bit too much of an adversarial approach to things, and that can get in the way. And sometimes I have found that lawyers let their advocacy and sometimes their own values and beliefs get in the way of resolution. While it is infrequent, sometimes it happens.
As mediators, I think that a legal background can be an exceptional asset. There has to be self-awareness, though. Am I impartial? Am I managing my biases? Am I being balanced, or am I taking on the role of inquisitor or cross examiner?
But I think the potential for pitfalls is true of any professional background or training. For example, if an accountant became a mediator, they would also have to watch their biases in terms of not providing financial or tax advice in settlement discussions.
Shelley: Factors like the backlog in the court system are causing individuals and institutions to look at alternatives for resolution of disputes. And I think generally, people are recognizing that they don’t feel a great deal of satisfaction with a formal hearing in the court setting, because even if they win, it costs them a lot of money. It’s very stressful.
Mediation and even arbitration gives more flexibility to take into account a bit more of the human context.
Shelley: Don’t think you have to get it perfect. People are quite forgiving. I find that as long as you can connect with them, they won’t expect you to know everything.
Trust your instincts. If you have a sense that something is not fair, follow your instincts instead of worrying about being rigid in terms of process. That’s not always easy to do when you’re first learning.
Make sure the area you’re working in resonates with you. I think sometimes people just jump into areas of work because the work is available. And sometimes you have to experiment, but I think you need to try to follow where your purpose meets passion. Mediation and arbitration are hard work, so you have to get some energy from it. If it’s draining you, it’s probably not the right fit.
Look after yourself! Self-care is really important. You’re listening to people’s stories, and there are some really hard facts and some really difficult situations. Make sure you are taking care of yourself. This includes developing a community of practice and a support system. The work can be isolating, especially when we spend the majority of time working virtually.
Shelley: I hope they recognize that it’s not just about application of legal principles. It is also about ensuring that people are able to be heard and present their case and have it thoroughly considered.
It’s really a huge privilege and honour to be involved in people’s cases. It’s a very personal process at a time when they’re at their most stressed. People are very, very vulnerable in those circumstances and that’s not something we can take lightly.
Kompass Professional Development’s certificate programs in mediation and arbitration are accredited by the ADR Institute of Canada and other relevant organizations. All programs are delivered online and take 10 or 12 weeks to complete.
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