Francis J. F. Handy began his professional career with Osler Hoskin & Harcourt, acting as counsel in a number of hearings over professional discipline, land use and development, commercial litigation, workplace, and regulatory disputes. In 1994, he co-founded Stitt Feld Handy Houston, a law firm focused on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). This firm and its corporate affiliates, including the Stitt Feld Handy Group, became a leading ADR organization, and Frank’s Mediation, ADR, and ADR training practice dates from that time. In 2004 he and his partner, Allan Stitt, merged that firm with ADR Chambers to create Canada’s largest and leading ADR training and service provider. Frank migrated to Australia in late 2010, and is now Principal of The Trillium Group, the Australian organization first established as part of Stitt Feld Handy Group in 1999.
Frank has conducted many facilitations, mediations, and arbitrations in a variety of public, corporate and commercial contexts. He has dealt with matters as varied as large scale public interest issues and individual workplace complaints, regulatory and disciplinary matters, varied administrative law issues, commercial and private litigation matters. He has also been Vice-Chair of the Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Tribunal and Board of Negotiation.
Frank has designed and conducted training programs in Australia, Canada, the US, the UK, the Caribbean, and Africa, for the public and a number of corporations, institutions, government agencies and other organizations. His areas of experience include culture change, dispute management techniques and tools, conflict coaching, mediation, negotiation, and difficult conversation management. In addition, Frank has lectured in courses in Negotiation, Mediation and ADR at a number of universities. Other aspects of his practice include workplace grievance and complaint investigations, as well as dispute resolution systems design and recommendations on compliance with policy and procedures. In Australia he has designed and facilitated programs with Telstra, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, Australia Post, the Australian Tax Office, Qantas, Worksafe, and QBE, as well as organizations of a similar size and scope in Canada and other countries.
