Ms Mary Walker OAM
9 Wentworth Chambers, NSW

Mary Walker OAM is Chair of the Law Council of Australia's International Law Section. Mary is an internationally recognised ADR practitioner and was Co-Chair of the International Bar Association Mediation Committee (2020 – 2021) and Co-Chair of the IBA Mediation Committee Advisory Board (2022).

Mary is Chair of the Law Council of Australia International Law Section, Co-Chair of the International Dispute Resolution Committee and South Pacific Issues Committee and Chair of the Federal Dispute Resolution Section ADR Committee. She has been a member of many Taskforces on mediation and ADR including as a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR Task Force on ADR and Arbitration (2020-2022 Paris) and committees such as the Supreme Court of NSW ADR Committee. She is Co-Chair of the International Bar Association and Vienna Arbitration Centre CDRC Advisory Committee (2023).  

Mary is a member of many international and domestic mediator and arbitrator panels and is internationally accredited as a Mediator and Mediator Advocate by the International Mediation Institute, certified as an Investor State Mediator by CEDR (London) and is a member of the Singapore International Mediation Centre Panel, JIMC-Kyoto Mediator Panel, CCPIT (Beijing) Mediation Panel and an Investor-State Mediator with the Abu Dhabi Global Market Financial Centre (ADGM). Mary is an ICC Australian Chamber of Commerce Arbitrator, an NBN Panel Arbitrator approved by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) in 2016-2023 and was appointed as a Mortgage and Credit Industry Ombudsman from 2001 to 2005.

Mary is a multi-award-winning mediator and was awarded the Inaugural Australian Mediator of the Year Award in 2016 by the Australian Disputes Centre, again awarded Mediator of the Year in 2017 and 2018 and was also awarded International Mediator of the Year in 2018 and 2019. Mary was inducted into the Australian ADR Awards Hall of Fame as its Inaugural member in 2019 (once inducted into the Australian ADR Awards Hall of Fame, you are no longer eligible to be nominated for future ADR Awards, see here). Mary is noted in the Inaugural Doyle’s Mediator List as a Leading Mediator in 2018 and subsequently in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Mary has been recognised in the Best Lawyers List 2022, 2023 and 2024. Mary is a Fellow of the Australian Dispute Resolution Association (ADRA), awarded for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Dispute Resolution in 2017 and was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) "For Service to the Law" in 2021. Mary contributes to domestic and international policy formation, education and training.