He describes his shift to commercial mediation as a "Jake Blues in the Triple Rock Church moment"
Mark Kelly might have been in the arts today if he wasn’t urged to complement his tertiary education with “something that might pay the bills”. The “artsy dreamer kid” eventually found himself “hooked” on civil litigation before making the transition to commercial mediation 20 years later.
Last year, Kelly joined the ranks of NZ Lawyer’s 2024 Most Influential Lawyers – in the first part of this interview, the Bankside Chambers commercial mediator shares why he loves mediation and the 2027 event he expects to be the most memorable of his legal career.
The start of my story is a fairly typical one: artsy, dreamer kid encouraged to add something that might pay the bills to his tertiary studies. But once I got into it, I started getting into it. Some great bosses, and opportunities, in my early years got me hooked on civil litigation.
After 20 years, in something of a Jake Blues in the Triple Rock Church moment, I saw the light and became a commercial mediator. It is a career, and a vocation, that I really enjoy, and feel very privileged to have.
My favourite part of the job is the sense of connection I develop with parties and counsel in mediations, as we all work to address the issues. Every mediation is challenging in one way or another, so there is an “in the trenches together” aspect to this. I get a sense of satisfaction from the problem-solving aspect of it all too.
I have been lucky enough to have some successes of different kinds in my career. But the moments I have most treasured have been when dear friends have done special things in the law, from: getting admitted (still love those ceremonies every time), being made partners in firms, building firms/practices, doing extraordinary pro bono work, to being made KCs and Judges. I get a real buzz from those achievements, being around good people doing well in our world.
That’s not as selfless as it might sound. I definitely enjoy the reflected glory! But what I suspect will ultimately be the most memorable event of my career hasn’t happened yet. In 2027, I will be moving our daughter to the bar. That’ll be it.
In March I delivered the results of a year-long research project: “Should New Zealand’s Senior Courts Have Greater Powers to Encourage, or Order, Parties to Civil Disputes to Mediate? An Access to Justice Opportunity? (incorporating a survey of comparable overseas jurisdictions)”. That research confirmed that New Zealand’s senior courts are an outlier, compared to those of England and Wales, Australia and Canada, with their lack of powers to encourage, or order, mediation.
The experience of those other jurisdictions shows that there is a real access to justice opportunity here. Giving our courts such powers would get more cases settled earlier and at less cost and enable issues refinement for cases that do not settle. That would benefit the cases that mediate. It would also reduce caseloads, so cases which do not mediate (or settle) can get to trial more quickly.
