Bernard of Chartes was a 12th century French philosopher and teacher. He is credited with the metaphor that modern thinkers are but ‘dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants’. Isaac Newton adapted this metaphor in the 17th century when he wrote in a letter: ‘if I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.’
This metaphor applies not just to modern thinkers, but to modern leaders.
As your new President, at this very humbling highlight in my life as a family law professional, I too feel that I am standing on the shoulders of giants. I stand on the shoulders of the past presidents of this great organisation, foremost of whom is my colleague and friend, AFCC now past President, Hon. Dolores Bomrad. Her quiet wisdom, total selflessness, enormous insight and humility has steered AFCC into another successful year.
One of my themes for my presidential year is to urge family law professionals to consider how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) will change how each of us practices. Indeed, I turned to CoPilot, the AI system I use, to help me describe in a poem the attributes of our past president. This is what it said:
Soft as Stillwater, yet deep with knowing;
A quiet strength that lifts others before herself.
Dolores Bomrad, you have led with dignity and purpose and will always be a role model for me and so many others. I thank you both personally, and on behalf of the over 6000 members of AFCC for your servant leadership.
Colleagues, as I peer into the year ahead of us as a group of family law professionals, I see technologically driven unprecedented change that potentially alters how each one of us, in this diverse organisation, will operate.
We stand at the dawn of the AI Epoch. AI may redefine the relationships which each of us have with each other, with our clients, and with our other constituents. Whether it be known issues such as hallucinations, deep fakes, and emerging competition with therapy bots, legal advice bots, and dispute resolution bots, or the emerging issues of synthetic relationships, AI that challenges the fundamental meaning of truth, or the enormous challenges of how to regulate these issues, we stand at the precipice of unprecedented change and complexity. Indeed, the issues I have alluded to may be merely the tip of the iceberg.
Are we ready, as family law professionals, to confront these issues? Are we ready to embrace historically unique complexity, overlaid over existing complexity?
One thing I am supremely confident about is this: AFCC manages complexity exceptionally well. To this end I am convening a diverse group of family law professionals with expertise in AI to prepare an issues paper to identify the specific issues that are relevant to family law professionals. This will be published in a future edition of E-News. Look out for this.
Another focus of my presidential year will be intimate partner violence (IPV) which in Australia we called family violence. At next year’s annual conference in Orlando AFCC will create the opportunity for continued difficult conversations about IPV, but my particular interest is the conversations that we are not already having about IPV: to identify these, have those conversations, and to consider why such conversations have not previously occurred. I encourage you to think about these issues.
Let me share something about myself. My parents were economic refugees from 1950s Italy who migrated to Australia. My brother and I were born in Sydney shortly thereafter. My first language was Italian, and I learnt English when I started school. I have been married to my wife for nearly 43 years. We have 2 sons and a grandson. I practised family law for 25 years in the suburbs of Sydney, in a rural community, and was lucky to practice in the family law practice in Sydney I had admired most. Those 25 years overlapped with 11 years as a law professor. I went to the bench in 2006 and to my current position as a Justice in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Div 1), formerly the Family Court of Australia. I celebrate 20 years on the bench this year.
I love family law. In this regard, I am a square peg in a square hole. My first AFCC conference was in San Francisco in 1997. It left a lasting impression on me, foremost of which was the interdisciplinary and egalitarian nature of AFCC. My next AFCC conference was a North East Regional Conference on September 13, 2001. It left a lasting impression on me for another reason when I arrived before September 11th. I was one of the inaugural members of the Australian chapter of AFCC established in 2013, was invited to join the Board in 2018 by former Executive Director Peter Salem and have been honoured to serve with current ED Bryan Altman since he joined AFCC in 2023.
In June I visited AFCC chapters in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. I was able to meet and speak with members (and prospective members) as well as chapter leadership. What an impressive group of family law professionals! Committed to AFCC and families and children. Highly professional. Overwhelmingly hospitable. Great fun to be around. It was an enormous pleasure and honour. I hope to visit other chapters and to meet many more members, prospective members, and leadership over the coming year.
As President, part of my role is to chair the board of directors of AFCC. In my opening comments I referred to giants. Every member of the board of AFCC is a giant in their own right. They are leaders in their fields. They are totally selfless in their willingness to share their vast experience, knowledge and to give generously so much of their time in service of AFCC. It is a pleasure to work with them.
The success of any professional organisation depends not on the President, or the board, but on its Executive Director and in this regard, I believe AFCC is truly blessed to have as our ED, Bryan Altman. Some of Bryan’s attributes include his expertise, leadership, industriousness, stewardship, creativity and humanity. I have enjoyed working with him and look forward to another exciting and productive year.
I look forward to hearing from members and invite you to communicate with me via [email protected].