Dan Toombs — Founder, Lawyer & Mediator

Dan Toombs — Founder, Mediations Australia

Multi-award winning lawyer. Published author. Systemic reformer. Mediator.

Dan Toombs is the Founder of Mediations Australia. An AMDRAS-accredited mediator, Dan brings to every session a rare combination of legal expertise, systemic reform experience, and a deep understanding of the human realities behind every dispute.

A Multi-Award Winning Lawyer and Published Author

Dan is a Multi-Award Winning Lawyer published by Thomson Reuters — one of the world's most respected legal publishers. His legal career has been defined not only by practice, but by meaningful reform. He has spearheaded major legislative change in Australia, including reform that delivered substantially improved outcomes for people with mental health and intellectual disabilities who become caught in the criminal justice system — work recognised with the Queensland Disability Award.

National and International Recognition

Dan is the recipient of the National Human Rights Law Award — one of Australia's most prestigious recognitions of leadership in the advancement of human rights through law.

Dan is a Winston Churchill Fellow, undertaking pioneering work with the Center for Justice Innovation in New York — an internationally recognised institution dedicated to solving complex problems across justice, health, and community safety.

Leadership, Behavioural Intelligence, and Team Dynamics

Dan is an Accredited Belbin Team Roles Facilitator — a globally recognised behavioural framework that, in a mediation context, gives Dan a sophisticated lens through which to read group dynamics, identify communication breakdowns, and create conditions where all parties feel heard and able to contribute constructively to resolution.

Dan is also trained in Adaptive Leadership through the Australian Adaptive Leadership Institute — a framework developed at Harvard University that equips leaders to navigate complex, high-stakes challenges where no simple technical fix exists.

A Leader in Access to Justice

Dan served as CEO of one of Australia's largest community legal centres and as a Former Board Director of Legal Aid Queensland — bringing leadership, strategic vision, and a fierce commitment to equitable access to justice at both an operational and governance level. He has also worked alongside Erin Brockovich on systemic environmental and public health campaigns in the United States — collaborating on some of the most complex, community-affecting disputes imaginable.

Building Across the Legal Ecosystem

Dan's work has always sat at the intersection of law, access to justice, and practical reform. That belief has shaped not just his practice but the businesses he has founded — each addressing a different part of how people find, experience, and benefit from legal services.

Best Solicitors is an independent legal rankings publisher covering eight jurisdictions. Rankings are transparent, client-led, and use a published methodology — they cannot be influenced by payment. It is a direct expression of Dan's belief that legal reputation should be earned, not bought.

Practice Proof provides strategy, branding, marketing and growth services for law firms — helping practices communicate their value clearly and build sustainable client relationships in a rapidly changing market.

Mediations Australia exists within that same philosophy: that legal services should be genuinely accessible, transparently priced, and focused on outcomes that actually improve people's lives. The profession is entering one of the most significant periods of change in its history — AI, digital trust, and reputation systems are reshaping how legal services are found, delivered, and valued. Dan's work across all three ventures reflects his conviction that the practitioners best placed to serve clients well are those who engage with that change honestly.

What This Means for You

Dan approaches every mediation — whether a property settlement, a parenting plan dispute, an estate conflict, a workplace dispute, or a commercial matter — with both emotional intelligence and clear-eyed commercial awareness. His singular focus is on helping people reach durable, workable, and fair resolutions: faster, more cost-effectively, and with far less collateral damage than litigation.

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