Meet our 2026 Abrams Scholarship recipients – Janine Goodwin and Adam Vella.
The Abrams Scholarship exists to help practitioners build their collaborative practice skills and importantly, do something with them – in their own work, across their professional communities and ultimately, in helping people find better and more constructive ways through conflict.
That idea came through strongly in this year’s applications.
Janine Goodwin is Practice Leader of Orbell Family Lawyers’ Northern Beaches office and practises exclusively in family law. She has already completed initial collaborative practice training and is particularly interested in approaches that give separating clients greater agency over decisions affecting their families. The Scholarship gives Janine the opportunity to go further, undertaking advanced training and exploring where collaborative practice can take her work next.
Adam Vella, Senior Associate at ATW Family Law, has worked exclusively in family law since 2017, with a two-year New Zealand chapter along the way. Throughout his practice, he has focused on helping clients navigate family breakdown and resolve disputes without going to court wherever possible. The Abrams Scholarship will give Adam his formal introduction to collaborative practice, adding a new framework to an approach to family law that is already firmly focused on resolution.
What impressed the selection panel was the thought Janine and Adam had given to what happens after the training – where those skills might lead, how they could shape their own practices and how that learning could ripple out into the broader collaborative community.
And that, really, is what the Abrams Scholarship is for.
We’re very pleased to have Janine and Adam as our 2026 recipients and looking forward to seeing what they do with the opportunity.
