Why Conciliation Training Makes Better Lawyers (Even If You Never Plan to Conciliate)
- Shiv Martin
- 3h
- 5 min read
How conciliation skills strengthen legal advocacy, emotional intelligence and client outcomes in an AI-driven legal landscape
If you are a lawyer, advocate, complaints officer, or regulatory decision maker, this article
is for you. Every week I train legal and regulatory professionals across Australia and New
Zealand in conciliation training and dispute resolution skills for lawyers, and I see a recurring challenge: many lawyers feel confident in the law, but far less confident in the human side of dispute resolution. They know the rules, the evidence, and the process, but struggle with the communication, negotiation, and conflict-management demands that determine whether matters resolve or escalate.
That is where conciliation training becomes one of the most valuable forms of professional development for lawyers. Conciliation provides a framework for working with both the legal rights of parties and the emotional, relational, and psychological elements that drive disputes. It bridges the gap between knowing the law and navigating the people who are living through it.
And why listen to me? I am a conciliator, mediator, lawyer, and national conciliation trainer with the Resolution Institute. I have trained hundreds of lawyers, advocates, Ombudsman officers, tribunal staff, regulators, and workplace investigators. I also assess conciliation competencies nationally, design conciliation frameworks for public agencies, and provide conciliation consulting to organisations across the public and private sectors. I see firsthand what skills lawyers need to thrive and which ones they wish they had learnt earlier.
Why Conciliation Training Matters for Legal Professionals
Conciliation sits at the intersection of two essential dimensions of lawyering:
the rights of the parties and the human experience of the dispute. This is why conciliation training for legal professionals is becoming increasingly important in regulatory, tribunal and workplace law environments.
Conciliation gives lawyers a structured framework to work with both. It allows you to engage with the legal rules, the evidence, and the process, while also addressing the emotional, relational, and psychological elements sitting underneath the conflict. These elements are present in almost every legal matter, whether acknowledged or not.
A recent participant in my advanced conciliation course described it well. They wrote that conciliation is not about imposing expertise or authority, but about balancing power, ethics, party emotions, and the substantive issues in a way that creates a pathway to resolution.
Coming from an advocate, this insight captures why conciliation skills strengthen legal
practice: understanding the mindset of a conciliator helps lawyers communicate more
effectively, prepare more strategically, and collaborate more productively.
Want a practical guide you can use in real disputes?
Download my free Conflict Management Guide for Advocates, a structured, step-by-step resource built around my CURE framework for staying clear on role and process, understanding before responding, reality testing, and empowering strong endings. Download your free copy here.
AI Is Reshaping Legal Practice: Soft Skills Now Matter More
We are entering a new era where many core legal tasks once seen as specialised skills are now performed easily by AI. Legal research, document drafting, identifying inconsistencies, reviewing evidence, and pattern recognition can now be automated with astonishing accuracy. In this environment, soft skills for lawyers and advanced dispute resolution capability are becoming the differentiator.
This means one thing: your competitive advantage as a lawyer is no longer technical knowledge alone.
If you want to future-proof your value as a legal advocate, now is the time to double down on the human capabilities that AI cannot replicate:
Emotional intelligence
Rapport and trust-building
Clear communication
Conflict de-escalation
Understanding how people make decisions under pressure
Helping clients shift perspective and engage in good faith
These skills sit at the heart of every effective conciliation service, and they are exactly what high-quality conciliation training strengthens.
How Conciliation Training Strengthens Legal Advocacy
Conciliation training equips lawyers with a practical, repeatable framework that improves
performance in every area of legal practice. It teaches you how to:
Translate complex legal rights into clear, accessible conversations
Distinguish between wants, needs, rights, and interests
Manage emotional intensity without escalating the dispute
Ask questions that shift rigid thinking and open new pathways
Balance strong advocacy with collaborative problem-solving
Prepare clients for realistic negotiations
Recognise early barriers to settlement and address them strategically
Even if you never intend to offer a conciliation service or become a conciliator, learning the communication techniques, process structures, and mindset of a conciliator will make you a more adaptive, trusted, and effective advocate. This is particularly relevant for lawyers appearing before tribunals, regulators, ombudsman schemes and workplace commissions where conciliation and early resolution processes are embedded in the system.
Conciliation Improves Outcomes for Everyone
Lawyers work with people experiencing uncertainty, frustration, fear, and stress. Conciliation training teaches you how to manage these moments with confidence, compassion, and clarity.
It also improves relationships with decision-makers,
conciliators, investigators, and
counterparties. In both litigation and regulatory environments, lawyers who understand conciliation frameworks and negotiation psychology consistently achieve stronger outcomes.
It is a professional discipline grounded in psychology, law, communication, systems thinking, and ethics.
And for lawyers, it is one of the most powerful ways to elevate your practice, support your clients, and prepare for the changing landscape of legal work. If you are ready to take the next step in your professional career or you would like to organise in-house conciliation training for your organisation please reach out. I am happy to discuss your specific needs and customise your training accordingly. You can call me directly on 0433904303 or email contact@shivmartin.com myself or my team will usually respond within 24-48 hours.
To support this work, Shiv Martin Consulting offers a structured three-level professional development pathway for dispute resolution and regulatory teams.
• Level 1 – Core Dispute Resolution Skills: For new starters or professionals working in complaints, case management or early resolution roles.
• Level 2 – Managing Challenging & High-Risk Interactions: For experienced conciliators, mediators, complaints managers and regulatory officers.
• Level 3 – Community of Practice for regulatory professionals: For experienced staff committed to reflective practice and continuous improvement.
All 3 levels can be offered in-house, simply book a free confidential consultation to discuss your specific needs and we can tailor training to suit your team.
Hi, I’m Shiv Martin. I’m a nationally accredited mediator, lawyer, conciliator, and conflict management specialist with over a decade of experience working across government, business, and community settings. I support teams to navigate complex and emotionally charged situations through mediation and conciliation, conflict skills training, facilitation, and practical advice on policies and processes. My approach is grounded in law, psychology, and real-world dispute resolution, with a strong focus on clarity, fairness, and workable outcomes.
If you’d like to talk about how I can help you or your organisation, you can get in touch here: 👉 Contact us
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