Professional Profile

JOHN S. CURTIS

http://johncurtis.ca/
 johncurtis@sympatico.ca

John graduated from Queen’s University Law School in 1995. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1998, following which he practiced civil litigation, primarily in the areas of Personal Injury, Long Term Disability Insurance, Employment, Landlord/ Tennant and Collections.

John’s career has been anything but conventional, although successful in multiple dimensions. After earning a degree in philosophy and prior to attending Law School he was a Member of the Canadian Sailing Team for 4 years. During this time, he set his sights on representing Canada in sailing at the Olympics, and only narrowly missed qualification for the Barcelona Games in 1992.

After two years in the practice of law, it became clear for John that mediation was frequently a much better way to manage conflict than the traditional legal approach. In 1998 John completed his formal mediation training with courses offered by CDR Associates of Boulder Colorado and The Conflict Consensus Institute in Barrie, Ontario.

In parallel with this new career direction, John felt the call to give the Olympic dream another chance. With several years of sustained high-level effort and training he got that opportunity, representing Canada in Sailing at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.

After the Olympics, John accepted a one year position as High Performance Manager and General Counsel to the Canadian Yachting Association – the national governing body for the sport of Sailing. This was an excellent window into the world of Sport Administration, allowing him to develop a specialization in that area of Sport Law. He has continued his work in this field as a legal consultant for several National Sport Organizations and the Canadian Olympic Committee.

In 2007 John added the practice of Conflict Coaching to his ADR repertoire. He now applies many of the same conflict resolution skills and his mediation experience to the one-on-one context of Conflict Coaching.

Currently, John’s primary focus is on workplace Conflict – using Conflict Coaching to help large and small organizations manage the inevitable conflict associated with workplaces in transition (eg. mergers, new management approaches, new mandates, restructuring and crises of all description.) to create opportunities for improving communication skills, employee job satisfaction and ultimately productivity.

John has delivered a course on Conflict Resolution at the Canadian Forces Base Kingston, and many workshops for teachers and students in the local high schools and University Clubs. Although no longer one of the principals, John continues his teaching activities as one of the regular instructors for the Courses in Negotiation and Mediation Skills offered by The Mediation Centre of Southeastern Ontario. John also taught the course on Negotiation at the Queen’s University Law School in the Winter term of 2009

Combining his skills as a lawyer, mediator and coach with the discipline, dedication and passion that established him as an Olympian, John now helps organizations enhance their own success through training, mediation, coaching and legal consulting.