Family Law Arbitration

Course Chairs
Carol W. Hickman, KC — West Coast ADR, New Westminster
Arlene H. Henry, KC — Arlene H. Henry Law Corporation, Vancouver

About the Course Chairs

Carol Hickman, KC has practiced family law in the Greater Vancouver area for 25 years. She has experience at all levels of court, including the BC Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. She has extensive experience in complex family law matters, including property division, maintenance, and custody and access disputes. A Law Society of BC bencher from 2004 to 2011, Carol is now a Life Bencher and chairs the Family Law Task Force which was responsible for developing the Regulations for Family Law Mediators, Arbitrators, and Parenting Coordinators.

For the past 10 years, Carol has been a family law mediator, collaborative family lawyer, and family law arbitrator. She is one of the pioneering members of the Collaborative Family Law Group. In 2012, Carol established West Coast ADR Law Group which focuses on ADR options, including mediation, arbitration, and collaborative law. Carol has been a frequent instructor and coach for CLEBC, including five times at the biennial Family Law Conference from 2001 to 2011. In addition, Carol assisted CLEBC to develop the Family Law Arbitration course in BC.

Carol received her LLB in 1987, and her LLM in Alternate Dispute Resolution in 2014. She was appointed King's Counsel in 2010.

Arlene Henry, KC is a lawyer, mediator, instructor, child interviewer, parenting coordinator, med-arbitrator, adjudicator, and dispute resolution coach; and is particularly interested in the mindful restructuring of families, within family, estate and business law. She has been mediating since 1998 having completed her mediation training at both the Justice Institute of BC and CLEBC in 1998. She took her arbitration training Part I, II and III with ADRBC in 2002. She is a panel member with ADRBC and VanIAC, and is also a certified comprehensive family mediator with Family Mediation Canada.

Arlene is a course designer and instructor for med-arb, family law arbitration, and family violence screening courses in BC. She co-designed and co-teaches the Family Law Mediation curriculum and courses offered in BC; and has coached family and civil mediation courses for CLEBC and other advanced education agencies since the late 1990s.

She is a recent member of Mediate BC's Roster Committee and each of the Civil, Family and Med-Arbitration Rosters and has a special interest in children & youth participation in dispute resolution processes. Arlene completed lengthy terms on the boards for BC Hear the Child Society, the BC Parenting Coordinators Roster Society and Mediate BC and is actively involved in the development of each discipline within BC and Canada.

Arlene is a former member of the BC Employment Assistance Appeal Tribunal and the Police Complaint Commission Mediator Roster. Experienced in working with Indigenous communities across our Nation since 1991, Arlene currently sits as a member of the Review and Appeal Panel for the Tla’amin Nation and as a member of the Ethics Commission for the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake. She is particularly proud of her work assisting with the final negotiations and implementation of the treaties for each of the Tsawwassen First Nation and the Huu-ay-aht First Nations.