(Contributed by Peter Irving)
A group of friends, family and former colleagues assembled in LEADR's Sydney offices on 9 November for an informal gathering to honour the Illustrious career of John Pollard who recently retired.
John was a highly respected Family Law specialist for decades. He was esteemed by his colleagues and clinets and by Judges for his ethics and thorough professionalism. Whenever it was possible and appropriate, John always tried to avoid litigation so as to spare his clients the divisiveness and enormous cost of Family Court battles. And he was doing this long before anyone had heard of mediation.
An amusing story was told about John's first encounter with the marvellous Eric Stevenson, the person who established the Unifam Family Mediaiton Service. As soon as Eric told John of his plans, John invited Eric to address a meeting of Family Lawyers at the Law Society to tell them about this new thing called 'mediation'. The overall audience reaction was a certain bewilderment at this strange process with an odd name. How things have changed!
This little episode says a few things about John. He was energetic, always pro-active, always had ideas, was a tireless advocate for ADR and always a member of at least one committee at any given time.
John had been a member of the Law Society's Famiy Law Committee and the Dispute Resolution Committee, a member of the Executive Committee of the NSW chapter of LEADR, President of ADRA and President of Collaborative Professionals NSW. Someone from each of these organisations spoke about John at the gathering. Many other colleagues, including Eric Stevenson, spoke of John's positive contributions.
John's son Joni and his daughter Cinnamon spoke with love and humour about their father. Three of John's old colleagues from Thornton's attended, Keith, Paul and Debbie, and across the evening they told stories of John's passion for rugby league, his generosity and his unfailing courtesy to others.
John and his wife Maureen now live in retirement at Lake Macquarie.
[The gathering was jointly sponsored by ADRA, LEADR and Collaborative Professionals NSW, with special thanks to Lorraine Lopich for coordinating the event.]