Background and experience 

I have been a commercial mediator, accredited by CEDR, since 1995.   My mediation practice covers a wide range of sectors and areas of dispute:  as well as commercial contract disputes, shareholder difficulties and complex employment situations including alleged discrimination, I also mediate clinical negligence, property disputes, inheritance claims, and judicial review matters.  I use my business experience to help parties create workable and sustainable solutions. 

My early career was in the oil industry, advertising and publishing, and I have mediated a number of disputes in these sectors.  I later trained as a barrister and ran a negotiation and advocacy service for tribunal claimants through the Citizens Advice Bureau before setting up my own business. Building on my experience as a facilitator, I work effectively as a mediator with parties in the public and not-for-profit sectors, understanding something of the context in which they operate, as well as in mainstream commercial disputes.

I am a founder member of CEDR Chambers.  In parallel to my mediation practice, I enjoy training others in the skills of mediation across diverse countries, faiths and cultures (see below).  I am a senior member of CEDR's Clinical Negligence panel, which provides mediators for the NHS Resolution and Medical Protection Society clinical mediation schemes, and have mediated a significant number of such disputes.

Style

I think I am approachable, calm, practical and imaginative.  I believe in offering as much guidance as parties wish with preparation.   I also use the flexibility of the mediation process to adapt to the needs of the parties and the changing circumstances of the negotiations, so as to use the time available as productively as possible. I am informal, except when circumstances demand otherwise, and energetic.

I am used to working with a wide range of people at all levels in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.  I regard it as a central part of the job to help all participants, parties, lawyers and other advisers to join in as quickly and comfortably as possible.

I can work constructively with any perceived imbalance of power and with high emotion, to give the parties a chance to have better conversations than have been possible to date.

I have been featured as a mediator for many years in Chambers UK Directory and the Legal 500 as a ‘leader in the field’, described as having a ‘winning combination of pragmatism and insight’ and as ‘grasping the complexities while steering both parties to the wider settlement issues’. 

Other mediation-related experience

I was one of the six independent mediators elected to the Board of the Civil Mediation Council and served there for more than 10 years.

I was for 14 years the Head of the CEDR Training Faculty and well-known nationally and internationally as a trainer and coach.  I have enjoyed contributing to the development of commercial mediation worldwide, working in jurisdictions such as South Africa, Hong Kong, Egypt, , Lebanon, Nigeria, Rwanda, Pakistan, Armenia, Georgia, and Russia, as well as closer to home.  At CEDR and in the wider cross-sector mediation community I have a key role in developing standards for mediator practice.

I have acted as a coach for CEOs and other senior executives; I have chaired and served on boards of charities large and small.  I have facilitated decision-making sessions for senior management teams and boards, and helped organisations to undertake a cultural audit, leading to or following merger, to see what works and what might not work in the new setting.

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