Media

Hearsay

The Australian Financial Review - 4 June 2004
By Chris Merritt

As Victoria's newest corruption fighter, Tony Fitzgerald is about to undergo a crash course learning all about the cast of colourful characters who inhabit the seamier side of life in Melbourne.

One name might ring a distant bell.

Since stepping down from the NSW Court of Appeal in 2001, Fitzgerald has created a niche for himself in the burgeoning field of alternative dispute resolution.

He is an approved mediator and neutral evaluator of the NSW Supreme Court, as well as being an approved mediator and case appraiser of the Supreme Court of Queensland.

Naturally, he became a fellow of the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators, which seems to have created a name for itself as the place to call when a mediator is needed.

Just last month The Sunday Age reported that the institute had been fielding some very strange calls from people looking for underworld figure Dominic "Mick" Gatto.

The confusion apparently arose because Gatto ran a company called Arbitration and Mediation Services.

For the record, Gatto's name does not appear on the same membership register as that of Fitzgerald.

We gratefully acknowledge the permission from Chris Merritt and The Australian FInancial Review to reprint this article.