Richard W. Shields, LL.B., M.A., LL.M., Ph.D.

Richard W. Shields is a lawyer, mediator, arbitrator, and trainer. Admitted to the practice of law in Ontario, Canada in 1976, he now restricts his professional practice to collaborative family law, family mediation, and family arbitration.

Rick has a Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution, a Master of Laws ADR, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Adult Education. He has the following designations: Certified Specialist in Family Law (Law Society of Upper Canada), Certified Comprehensive Family Mediator (Family Mediation Canada), Chartered Mediator and Chartered Arbitrator (ADR Institute of Canada), Certified Family Mediator and Certified Family Arbitrator (ADR Institute of Ontario), and Accredited Family Mediator (Ontario Association for Family Mediation).

Rick is an active participant in several professional organizations. He is a past certifying administrator for Family Mediation Canada and a past president of the ADR Institute of Ontario and he is currently co-chair of the Family Section of the ADR Institute of Ontario, a member of the Boards of Directors of Family Mediation Canada, the Ontario Association for Family Mediation, and the Ontario Collaborative Law Federation, and a member of the Family Section Advisory Council of the Association for Conflict Resolution.

Rick is an adjunct professor in negotiation and mediation in the Certificate in Dispute Resolution program at York University and negotiation in the Peace and Conflict Studies program at the University of Waterloo. His family mediation and family arbitration workshops have been approved by the ADR Institute of Ontario, which will enable participants to apply for the Certified Family Mediator and Certified Family Arbitrator designations.

Rick worked with Judith Ryan and Victoria Smith to create the first collaborative law training by and for Ontario practitioners. Initially, they offered their programs in two workshops: a two-day Level I workshop on process and a three-day Level II workshop on skills. Currently, he trains with a mental health professional and a financial planner in an interdisciplinary training team. Their five-day, forty-hour interdisciplinary collaborative practice workshops are presented in two parts of two and three days respectively.

Rick is a co-author of Collaborative Family Law: Another Way to Resolve Family Disputes, published by Thomson Carswell in 2003. He is the current editor of the Collaborative Review, a publication of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals.