He/Him
Wayne Thistle has been an active arbitrator, mediator, and facilitator for the past 40 years assisting parties throughout Canada in resolving disputes, primarily in labour and employment insurance, construction, and commercial areas. His legal studies were concentrated in those areas. He was admitted to the Chartered Arbitrator designation by the Arbitration and Mediation Institute of Canada in 1988 and to the Chartered Mediator designation in 2011. He has completed the Advanced Program in Alternative Dispute Resolution presented by the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law, and Stitt Feld Handy Houston law firm of Toronto. He also has undergone training offered in the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation specializing in Conflict Resolution and Human Resource Effectiveness.
Wayne has served in various administrative capacities at Memorial University of Newfoundland and held the position of vice-president (Administration and Finance) and legal counsel for twenty-one years. He has taught Business Law and Education Law at Memorial University where he held the rank of Associate Professor. For three years, Wayne served as counsel to the Atlantic Canada law firm, McInnes Cooper, operating from the St. John’s office. In January 2006, with two other partners he established the Dispute Resolution Centre in St. John’s and now is full-time in the practice of dispute resolution. Wayne has been recognized by his peers, for the last several years, as one of the best lawyers in Canada in the field of dispute resolution. He has written and spoken extensively in that area and advised many organizations both in the private and public sector on conflict resolution intervention and strategies.
Wayne has served as the president of both the Canadian Association of University Solicitors and the Canadian Association of University Business Officers and as the chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Universities Reciprocal Insurance Exchange. He was the chairman of the Board of Directors of Newfoundland and Labrador Computer Services Limited. He also served as a member of the Newfoundland Public Utilities Board, as an adjudicator with the Newfoundland Human Rights Commission, Mayor of the Town of Wedgewood Park, and a member of the Board of Trustees and the Hope for Youth Foundation of St. James United Church. Wayne was also involved in a review of alternative dispute resolution processes as a member of the Advisory Committee to the Canadian Bar Association National Task Force on Systems of Civil Justice.
