Speakers' Biographies

Vincent Tan is a lawyer, mediator, and family dispute resolution practitioner (“FDRP”). Vincent has been a lawyer since 2008, mediator since 2015, a FDRP since 2016 and specialises in collaborative financial and parenting matters. Vincent has been a partner of Clairs Keeley since 2019 and graduated from the Oxford University Executive Leadership Program in 2021.

Vincent has a Masters in Law, as well as a Bachelor of Commerce specialising in International Finance. Vincent lectures in mediation and family dispute resolution at The University of Western Australia, Anglicare WA and Centrecare. He was rated by Doyles Guide as one of Western Australia’s Leading Family Law Mediators for 2023. 

Vincent has gained great satisfaction in helping clients navigate the difficulties of separation. His ability to understand the needs of a client quickly and compassionately, and work out practical, collaborative solutions has helped thousands of families across Australia in his career.   

Gail Sutherland attended the University of Western Australia and was admitted to practice in 1982. She practiced predominantly in family law, becoming an accredited family lawyer in 1994. In 2008 Gail joined the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia as a senior lecturer in its Articles Training Program.  

Gail joined the Family Court of Western Australia in 2009 as a Registrar. She was appointed as a Family Law Magistrate in 2010, as Principal Registrar/Senior Magistrate in 2017 and as a Judge in 2018. Gail was appointed as the Chief Judge of the Family Court of Western Australia in January 2019.

Marnie Parkinson is Senior Lawyer at Greenstone Legal.  She was admitted as a lawyer in 2000 and practices in family law, care and protection matters and restraining orders. Marnie is an independent children’s lawyer and regularly appears as a separate representative in the Children’s Court.  Marnie also holds qualifications anthropology, linguistics and education.

Marnie spent many years working in remote towns and communities in Western Australia and northwest Queensland, giving her a particular interest in issues and problems facing parents and children living in country areas. With a talent for bringing parties to common ground, Marnie helps her clients resolve disputes, particularly those involving complex children's matters.

Stephanie Baxter graduated from Murdoch University in 2013 and was admitted to the Supreme Court of Western Australia, in 2014. She joined the D’Angelo Legal team in 2019 and is now the Head of Family Law.

Since 2014, Stephanie has worked exclusively in the area of family law and takes a particular interest in children’s matters, complex property matters and adult child maintenance. She practices as both a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner and a Collaborative Practitioner and is honoured to also work as an Independent Children’s Lawyer for Legal Aid WA. Stephanie is passionate about her work with clients to problem-solve their matters outside of Court proceedings and provide an informed, thorough and practical approach to Court proceedings as well. She takes pride in giving high-quality legal services to her clients and helping them reach their goals post-separation wherever possible and is held in high regard by her clients.

Known to some as a bit of a “law nerd”, Stephanie was honoured to be co-published in the Australian Journal of Family Law in 2014 and 2019. When Stephanie isn’t wearing her “lawyer hat” she will be spending quality time with her daughters, doing yoga, or hanging out near the coast.

Renae Bishop is a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner and Child Consultant with Centrecare. Prior to her current role, Renae has spent almost 15 years working with family and domestic violence survivors as well as in the mental health sector. Renae holds a degree in Psychology and is a registered Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner. Renae is passionate about her dual roles and believes child inclusive mediation provides a unique opportunity to support parents to hold in mind the needs of their children amid the emotionally fraught time that is family separation. To hear the voice of the child is a privilege and one that can help keep families off the cycle of ongoing conflict.

Sharyn Green-Arndyt is a Family Expert with over 30 years’ experience working with families navigating their way through relationship breakdowns and separation. She has extensive experience in the Family Court as a Court appointed therapist, and as such has vast experience working with high conflict situations.

Sharyn has a passion for supporting families to not only survive separation but come out the other side stronger and happier than ever. She is a firm believer that when parents know better, they do better, hence her commitment to educating parents about the research completed worldwide on how to ensure good outcomes for the children involved in a separation.

Sharyn has worked with families from all walks of life during her long career. She has been able to assist families navigate complex co-parenting issues and is not a one-size-fits-all practitioner.
Sharyn is the founder of Kidsfocus Psychology Clinic, and Co-Founder of The Co-parenting institute.

Lisanne Iriks is a mediator and coach with over 15 years of experience working with separated parents working their way through conflict as a mediator and coach. Lisanne is passionate about helping people see beyond their conflict and what is important to them. Lisanne helps clients stay out of the court system and work on how to move forward as co-parents in a way that works for everyone, especially the children. Lisanne is a big believer in educating parents on the impact of their conflict and recognises that that conflict resolution is a skill everyone needs in their lives but that a lot of people do not get taught how to do it effectively. This is why Lisanne has a passion for mediation and teaching as she believes having conflict resolution skills provide people with more happiness and freedom.  
Lisanne teaches family dispute resolution to mediators and is a mentor to mediators Australia wide. Lisanne enjoys teaching mediation and conflict resolution at Universities, government departments and for corporate clients. 

Lisanne is the founder of Life mediation, Podcast host for Conversations to Cut the conflict and the Co-Founder of the Coparenting Institute.

Katharine McLean is the Senior Child Mental Health Advisor for the Social Services team within Emerging Minds Partnerships and Implementation Team. Katharine has been working in the child and family sector for the last 20 years in frontline, practice and operational management roles spanning early childhood, homelessness, family support, post adoption and children’s mental health programs.

Afra Durance is the Child Mental Health Advisor for the Social Services team within Emerging Minds Partnerships and Implementation Team. Afra has over 15 years’ experience focused on promotion, prevention, and early intervention approaches to strengthening children’s mental health and wellbeing across the health, education, and community services sectors.

Kayelene Kerr is passionate about the prevention of child abuse, sexual exploitation, and sexual violence. Kayelene draws on over 27 years’ experience of study and law enforcement, investigating sexual crimes, including technology facilitated crimes to educate, equip and empower children and young people, and support parents, educators, and other professionals. 

She believes protecting children from harm is a shared responsibility and aims to inspire the trusted adults in children’s lives to tackle challenging topics. 

Having featured on Australian and international television broadcasts, radio programs and in print media, Kayelene is recognised as one of Australia’s most experienced specialist providers of Protective Behaviours, Body Safety, Cyber Safety, Digital Wellness and Pornography education workshops. 

Lynette Hill is the Solicitor in Charge of Dispute Resolution at Legal Aid WA.  She holds both law and social work degrees, is an accredited Family Law Specialist, ICL, and registered Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner.   Over Lynette’s 30ish year career she has held various child related roles including Child Protection Worker, Family and Child Counsellor, Family Consultant and Single Expert Witness.  Lynette has also practiced as a Family Lawyer.  Working more recently in the mediation space, Lynette has chaired in excess of 3,500 family law matters equating to over 10,000 hours of mediation practice.

Noël Robertson is a registered psychologist who has spent the majority of her career working in the family and domestic violence field.  Noël is passionate about her work in preventing domestic violence and has experience in working with children and adults through their lifespan.

Noël holds a Master of Psychology and is a trained supervisor in the Safe and Together model and Caring Dads facilitator trainer. Noël has worked with women and children victim/survivors of domestic violence in both group and individual counselling settings.

With more than 10 years’ experience working in perpetrator intervention Noël is currently the clinical manager at the Stronger Families Foundation. Stronger Families is dedicated to breaking the cycle of intergenerational violence to assure the safety and well-being of our most vulnerable children, by supporting mothers, and engaging fathers to promote safe and responsible parenting.

Farida Lang is a practitioner who wears many hats. She is a Family Disupute Resolution Practitioner and Supervisor at Joondalup Family Relationships Centre and the Senior Child Consultant at Anglicare WA. Farida has a background in law and served as a Provincial Magistrate in the land of her birth, Zimbabwe, Southern Africa, with over 22 years’ experience in the Family Court and the Juvenile Court. Additionally, she has over 20 years’ experience as a facilitator and has been involved in training and development and child inclusive practice at Anglicare for over 14 years.

Farida is passionate about the rights of the child, and her work experience has led her to a more socio-legal approach which lends to better outcomes for the family, especially the “little people” who make the parents a family.. the children.

Richard Bannerman commenced operating as a solicitor in Scotland in 1988 before moving to Australia in 1998. Since that time he has worked almost exclusively in family law commencing Bannerman Solicitors in 2005 some 19 years ago. In 2001 Richard became an independent children's lawyer and he and his firm have taken a very large proportion of legally aided matters in the Family Court and the care and protection jurisdiction both representing parties and children.

In 2018 Richard was awarded the family lawyers Family Lawyer of the year primarily for his work in the area of child-welfare law. Richard often deals in the most contentious and high conflict of cases, not just because of the way he practices!

Kirsty Mead is the Program Manager at Midland Family Relationship Centre. Kirsty is a Social Worker and has worked at Centrecare for over 10 years. Her experience spans across various areas, including children's counselling, men's behaviour change, homelessness services, specialised family violence counselling, and family law counselling. Kirsty is also a trained Child Consultant, driven by her passion for aiding children caught in parental conflict and supporting parents to heal from separation and prioritise their children's needs.

Nigel Calver has qualifications in commerce, psychology, and ethics, with a diverse background in business, training, adventure therapy, and not-for-profit services. For the past 16 years, Nigel has been an Executive Manager for Centrecare WA, responsible for managing a variety of services including refugee and asylum seeker programs, counselling and EAP services, community housing programs, and family law services.

Darin Cairns Is a Clinical Psychologist with over 25 years experience in treating children, adults and families for a range of psychological disorders. For the last 12 years he has been the director of the Charles St Clinic. He has specialised in the interface between developmental systems and clinical psychology. Clinically, Darin has expertise in child, adolescent, family therapy and developmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders and works as a single expert witness and family therapist in high conflict matters for the Family and Children's Courts respectively. Darin has lectured at the tertiary level and has provided over 200 training courses to a wide range of populations in the medical, health and public settings.  He is a sought-after speaker in the use of evidence based practice to promote psychological wellbeing and development around the world having been invited to speak in the UK, Europe, the US and most of Australia.

Jemma is a registered psychologist who has been working clinically since she graduated her Master of Psychology (Professional). Jemma has worked with various populations including adults, adolescents, and children across her career, and has had clinical experience working with a wide range of presenting concerns, including mood and anxiety symptoms, interpersonal difficulties, identity and/or adjustment stress, grief and loss, substance misuse and trauma. Jemma started her career working with women experiencing FDV and/or postnatal depression. She has also had experience working with ex-service personnel in the vocational rehabilitation space.

As an ex-elite athlete it is the mental health and wellbeing of elite and professional athletes is, and has been, her special interest area, reflected in the focus of both her Honours and Doctorial research. She enjoys working with athletes from grass roots through to elite and professional levels. Given her experiences as an ex-elite athlete, Jemma has an intimate understanding of the stress and stressors experiences by athletes, which enables her to support athletes during and beyond their careers.

Jemma currently works at Curtin University as a Lecturer in the Master of Psychology (Professional) program and also works in private practice as a psychologist and supervisor. She also supports the charitable foundation “A Stitch In Time” as a psychologist advisor, facilitator and research lead. Jemma has previously worked at the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS), and held positions in Athlete Wellbeing and Engagement, Performance Psychology, and served as Mental Health Coordinator during her tenure.

Magistrate Eric Martino is a Registrar and Magistrate of the Family Court of WA. Prior to his appointment, Magistrate Martino worked in a well-established family law firm for approximately 20 years. During that time, he gained additional qualifications as an Accredited Family Law Specialist, an Independent Children’s Lawyer, and a Nationally accredited Mediator. In addition, he held professional memberships with the Law Society of WA, The Family Law Practitioners’ Association of WA and Collaborative Professionals WA.

Magistrate Martino is passionate about family law and delivering the best outcome for children and families.