Dan Toombs — Mediator & Founder, Mediations Australia

Dan Toombs — Mediator & Founder, Mediations Australia

Award-winning lawyer. Former Member, Guardianship & Administration Tribunal Qld (now QCAT). Nationally accredited mediator. Published author.

Dan Toombs is the Founder of Mediations Australia and an AMDRAS-accredited mediator who brings a distinctive perspective to resolving difficult disputes.

He has experienced disputes from multiple perspectives: as a lawyer, as a former Tribunal Member of the Guardianship and Administration Tribunal (Queensland) (jurisdiction now within QCAT), as an organisational leader, and now as a mediator. That experience has taught him that disputes are rarely about the legal issues alone. Relationships, personalities, commercial pressures, organisational dynamics and entrenched positions can all determine whether a conflict escalates or finds a way forward.

Dan's approach is to understand what is really keeping a dispute stuck, test what is driving the parties' positions, and create the conditions for a practical and enduring resolution.

Because unresolved conflict rarely stands still.

Legal costs increase. Management time is consumed. Relationships deteriorate. Workplace culture can suffer. Positions harden. And the longer a dispute continues, the more time and money can be spent pursuing an outcome neither party can predict with certainty.

Mediation offers an opportunity to change that trajectory — while the parties still have control over the outcome.

Understanding Disputes from the Decision-Maker's Perspective

Dan is a multi-award-winning lawyer published by Thomson Reuters and a former Member of the Guardianship and Administration Tribunal (Queensland) — the jurisdiction now within QCAT — where he presided over and determined numerous matters.

That experience gives him a perspective relatively few mediators possess. He understands the difference between how strongly a party may believe in its position and how that position may ultimately be assessed by an independent decision-maker. Confidence in a case and certainty of outcome are not the same thing.

Once a dispute is handed to a tribunal or court, someone else decides. Evidence may be interpreted differently than expected. Witnesses may perform differently under scrutiny. Legal arguments may not carry the weight anticipated. And even a successful outcome can come after considerable expenditure of time, money and energy.

Mediation gives the parties an opportunity to realistically assess those risks — and explore an outcome they control rather than having one imposed upon them.

Navigating Complexity and Competing Interests

Dan's legal career has included complex disputes, legislative reform, access to justice and organisational leadership. He helped drive significant legislative reform in Australia that improved outcomes for people with mental health and intellectual disabilities caught in the criminal justice system — work recognised with the Queensland Disability Award.

Achieving systemic change of this kind required much more than technical legal knowledge. It required navigating complex legislative and policy environments, understanding competing perspectives, building relationships across institutions, overcoming entrenched positions and creating a pathway towards meaningful and enduring change.

Those same capabilities are central to mediation. The issue being argued about is not always the whole problem. Dan looks at the legal issues alongside the interests, relationships, organisational pressures and human dynamics beneath the conflict to understand what is preventing progress — and where movement may be possible.

Understanding People and Organisations

Conflict between people can quickly become a problem for an entire organisation. Trust deteriorates. Communication becomes defensive. Managers are drawn in. Colleagues take sides. Productivity suffers. Good people disengage. What began as a disagreement between two people can begin affecting the culture and performance of a wider team.

Dan has specialist training in behaviour, leadership and team dynamics. He is an Accredited Belbin Team Roles Facilitator and has trained in Adaptive Leadership through the Australian Adaptive Leadership Institute, based on the framework developed at Harvard University.

He also understands organisational conflict from the perspective of someone who has actually led an organisation. Dan served as CEO of one of Australia's largest community legal centres and as a Board Director of Legal Aid Queensland, with responsibility spanning people, strategy, governance, organisational culture and difficult decisions.

Today, alongside his mediation practice, Dan is Director of Practice Proof, working with law firms and legal professionals across Australia. This keeps him closely connected to the commercial, leadership and organisational realities facing professional firms. He understands not only how disputes arise inside organisations, but something equally important: the environment people may need to return to once the mediation is over.

National and International Recognition

Dan's work has been recognised nationally and internationally. He is the recipient of the National Human Rights Law Award, a Winston Churchill Fellow, and has worked with the Center for Justice Innovation in New York on innovative responses to complex justice and social problems.

Across that work runs a consistent theme: bringing different perspectives together, navigating complexity and finding practical ways through difficult problems. It is that experience Dan brings to the mediation room.

The Cost of Leaving a Dispute Unresolved

By the time mediation is being considered, a dispute may already have consumed significant time, money and attention. The more important question is: what will it cost if nothing changes?

More legal fees. More management time. More uncertainty. More stress. More damage to commercial relationships or workplace culture. And potentially months or years pursuing an outcome that will ultimately be determined by someone else.

As a former Member of the Guardianship and Administration Tribunal (Queensland) — the jurisdiction now within QCAT — who has presided over and determined disputes, Dan understands first-hand that adjudication necessarily involves uncertainty. Mediation offers a different path. It creates a structured and independent environment in which the parties can clarify what really matters, test assumptions and positions, realistically assess the alternatives to settlement, and explore solutions that may not have emerged through negotiation alone.

Dan brings together four perspectives in that process: the analytical discipline of a lawyer, the perspective of a former Tribunal Member (Guardianship & Administration Tribunal Qld, now QCAT), the practical judgment of an experienced organisational leader, and the independence of a mediator. The aim is not agreement at any cost. It is a resolution that is practical, workable and capable of enduring after the mediation is over.

Take Back Control of the Dispute

Conflict has a way of gathering momentum. The longer it continues, the more money, time and emotion become invested in it — and the harder it can become for either side to change course.

Mediation provides an opportunity to interrupt that trajectory. You do not need to know how the dispute will be resolved before you start. You need to decide whether continuing down the current path is likely to produce a better outcome.

If a workplace, business or commercial dispute is consuming time, money or management attention — or beginning to affect important relationships, people or workplace culture — there is value in exploring mediation before the cost of the conflict grows further.

Speak confidentially with Dan about what is happening, what is at stake, and whether mediation can provide a practical way forward.

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