Mr. Wheatley is the President and a
founding member of ADR Chambers, a Toronto-based Alternative Dispute Resolution
group, which provides ADR services consisting of Mediations, Arbitrations,
Early Neutral Evaluation, Mini-Trials, Med-Arb, and Private Appeals from
Arbitral Awards and Trial Judgments in civil actions.
He is the President of ADR Chambers
(UK) Limited, a dispute resolution group based in Taunton, England, which
provides services similar to those offered in Canada.
He is also the Executive Director of
ADR Chambers International, a group of arbitrators and mediators whose
expertise and experience is acknowledged world-wide.
Immediately prior to his retirement
from the active practice of law in December 1995, Mr. Wheatley was Counsel to
the Miller Thomson law firm in Toronto where he carried on a practice which
included motor vehicle litigation; fire liability; products liability; medical
malpractice; wrongful dismissal actions; disability and life insurance claims;
marine law; occupiers’ liability; policy coverage issues; professional
liability and reinsurance. His clients at that time included major Canadian
property and casualty insurers as well as English reinsurers.
In addition to his extensive defence
practice, Mr. Wheatley represented Plaintiffs in personal injury claims on a
number of occasions directly, and as Counsel for various law firms throughout
Ontario, the United States and the United Kingdom.
He appeared in all levels of the
Courts in Ontario including the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada.
Mr. Wheatley is a past Director of
Sun Alliance Insurance Company and Sun Alliance and London Assurance Company.
Throughout his career, Mr. Wheatley
was involved in Continuing Legal Education for The Law Society of Upper Canada
and other professional organizations. He was an instructor in the Bar Admission
Course in Civil Procedure for a number of years; he was a past Chairman of the
Insurance Subsection of the Canadian Bar Association (Ontario); past Chairman,
co-Chairman and panelist of numerous programmes for The Continuing Legal
Education Department, The Law Society of Upper Canada, on subjects which
included: Damages; Party and Party Costs; Fire and Property Insurance; Family
Law; and Structured Settlements. In addition, he was Chairman and lecturer on
Insight programmes dealing with Damages and with Fraudulent Insurance Claims.
Mr. Wheatley received his LL.B. from
Osgoode Hall Law School in 1964, and was called to the Ontario Bar, with
Honours, in 1966. He received his appointment as Queen’s Counsel in 1978
and was one of the first recipients of a Certification as a Specialist in Civil
Litigation from The Law Society of Upper Canada. He is a member and past
Director of The Advocates’ Society member of the Canadian Bar association;
associate member of the American Bar Association; and member of the
International Bar Association.
MEDIATION TRAINING AND
RELATED ACTIVITIES
During the last ten years of his
active practice of law, Mr. Wheatley presided over numerous pre-trials for the
former Supreme Court of Ontario, Trial Division, as well as for the Ontario
Court (General Division).
Mr. Wheatley was accredited as a
Mediator in 1995 by the Centre for Dispute Resolution, Boulder, Colorado, in
The Mediation Process and Practice of Conflict Management. He is also
accredited in Advanced Mediation by the Harvard Programme sponsored by The
Advocates’ Society (1996). He is a member of the American Arbitration
Association and a Member of the National Institute for Dispute Resolution.
Mr. Wheatley has lectured to various
institutions and legal organizations with respect to the benefits and
techniques of The Mediation Process, as well as how to be a successful Mediator
and participant in mediation. He organized and chaired a panel for The
Advocates’ Society, Court House Series (Barrie, Ontario) in February 1996
on Alternative Dispute Resolution; lectured to The Insurance Institute of
Canada, a training programme, with respect to an overview of The Art of
Mediation (1996 and 1997); Insight Conference of New Automobile Insurance Plan
(luncheon speaker re: The Use of Private ADR, November 1996); organized and
chaired ADR Chambers Lectures on The Benefits of Mediation and Arbitration for
the Department of Justice, Canada (September 1997); guest lecturer,
Queen’s University, Alternative Dispute Resolution (November 1997);
panelist, Lexpert Conference re: Medico-Legal Course, specifically, panel with
respect to “Legal Tripwires in Bill 59" and the use of ADR (December
1997). He has participated as a coach for Osgoode Hall Law School, York
University, Advanced Mediation Courses.
Mr. Wheatley is the Chair of the ADR
Chambers Continuing Alternative Dispute Resolution Course and Lectures given to
new members of its group throughout Canada. He has conducted hundreds of
mediations since the inception of ADR Chambers Inc., in 1995.
