About Dov Silberman, Jewish Arbitration’s founder,:

1. Commercial lawyer: Dov is a Victorian solicitor, having, continuously practiced in Melbourne since 1982. He acts for individual and business clients in commercial litigation and related commercial matters. He has appeared in the Federal Court, VCAT, Magistrates Court, County Court, Supreme Court and Victorian Court of Appeal and acted for a successful High Court respondent (see below).

2. Mediator: Dov is an accredited mediator with the Resolution Institute.

3. Arbitrator: Dov is a Graded Arbitrator with the Resolution Institute and sits on the Resolution Institute Victorian Arbitration and Expert Determination Committee. He obtained his Professional Certificate in Arbitration with High Distinction from the University of Adelaide.

4. Jewish community networker: As both the son of a community rabbi and as a lawyer, if Dov cannot be of direct assistance to you, he is well placed to know who may be appropriate to assist you in resolving your commercial dispute.

5. Why mediate or arbitrate: Given the inherent risks and cost to the parties in going to court, Dov appreciates why the courts themselves invariably order at some stage a mediation and why they support the arbitration process. ADR is nowadays more properly characterised as “appropriate” dispute resolution.   Dov believes from experience that faith-based ADR is a hugely underutilised method that can achieve resolutions which allow parties and their families who are likely to meet in the same community to continue to interact with each other and to maintain their social standing there.

6. Australian Beth Din Court case: Dov acted as the solicitor and barrister for the successful applicant in the Supreme Court of Victoria (Tayar v Feldman [2020] VSC 66) and then in the Victorian Court of Appeal (Feldman v Tayar [2021] VSCA 185) in which both courts recognised the validity of certain parts of an award (psak) relating to the Commercial Arbitration Act (Vic) 2011 made by a local ad hoc Beis Din.   That is, the relevant parts of the psak were given the same status as any other award made pursuant to the Commercial Arbitration Act (Vic) 2011 and could be legally enforced. A further appeal was made to the High Court, and Dov made submissions.  Leave to appeal was summarily dismissed and the previous court judgements upheld

7. Seminars and webinars: Dov has given seminars and webinars on faith-based arbitration topics for the Resolution Institute and the Jewish community. He also presented a talk “Using faith-based arbitration to promote harmony in a multicultural society” at the 2015 Kon’gres Conference.