Mary Walker OAM was Co-President of Australian Dispute Resolution Association (ADRA) and was made a Fellow of ADRA, awarded for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Dispute Resolution in 2017. She 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 in ADR, education and training. Mary is an internationally recognised ADR practitioner and 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 was Co-Chair of the International Bar Association Mediation Committee (2020-2021) and is a member of the IBA Mediation Committee Advisory Board (2022-2023).

Mary is Chair of the Federal Dispute Resolution Section ADR Committee, Chair of the Law Council of Australia International Law Section, Co-Chair of the International Dispute Resolution Committee and South Pacific Issues 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.

Mary appeared on behalf of the International Bar Association before UNCITRAL in 2022 and 2023. Mary is a multi-award-winning mediator. Mary was inducted into the Australian ADR Awards Hall of Fame as its Inaugural member and only 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) 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 is noted in the Inaugural Doyle’s Mediator List as a Leading Mediator in 2018 and subsequently in each year including 2023. Mary has been recognised in the Best Lawyers List 2022, 2023 and 2024.

She was a long-term Chair and member of the NSW Bar Association ADR Committee and member of the Supreme Court of NSW ADR Committee. She is Co-Chair of the International Bar Association and Vienna Arbitration Centre CDRC Advisory Committee (2023) which oversees the international university student mediation competition. Mary is an ICC Australian Chamber of Commerce Arbitrator, an NBN Panel Arbitrator approved by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC).

She was appointed as a Mortgage and Credit Industry Ombudsman from 2001 to 2005. Mary publishes widely in the area of alternative dispute resolution and is a member of many editorial boards including of the American Bar Association ADR Book Publishing Board and the International Bar Association Dispute Resolution International Journal as well as the editorial board of the Lexis Nexis Dispute Resolution Journal.