Independent Mediators are very proud to announce that all ten of our members have been listed in tier one of the mediators section in the new edition of Legal 500 released in September 2020. This is a tremendous achievement for all.
We are delighted with the rankings and are extremely grateful to all our instructing solicitors and clients for their support in helping us to both achieve and maintain them.
Full listings for each of our Mediators can be found below. You can also click through to the mediators individual page (click on their name) to download their CV and see more information.
Stuart Chapman is ‘always on the list of proposed mediators. He is always fully prepared and calm, but very tenacious so nearly always gets a result‘. Chapman conducted 59 mediations in 2019, including repeat instructions from 50 firms. His commercial and civil mediation practice straddles a variety of subject areas including the corporate, environmental, technology, property, construction and engineering, and professional negligence spaces. Other areas of expertise include boundary, agriculture, banking and finance, employment, insolvency, insurance and trust disputes.
Charles Dodson is ‘one of the very best‘, he is ‘purposeful, amiable, trustworthy, straight talking, and capable of getting results even in difficult cases. He is able to get to the parts of a problem that some other mediators cannot reach‘. Dodson has been involved in the development of ADR in both the UK and the US since the mid 1980s (and CEDR-accredited since 1996), and his cases are frequently multi-party and international. Approximately 50% of the mediations conducted by Dodson in 2019 related to commercial and international commercial claims, which encompassed professional negligence, insurance and partnership matters. The balance of his mediation instructions spanned pensions, probate, property, banking and finance, and manufacturing mandates, along with IT, insolvency, franchising, engineering and business sale disputes.
Since joining Independent Mediators in 2010, Phillip Howell-Richardson (a full-time, independent mediator since 2005) has conducted over 560 mediations and over 1350 during his mediation career. Howell-Richardson is ‘a vastly experienced mediator, with the gravitas to guide parties through the most challenging, high-value and complex mediation processes. He can be firm and direct when required, but always brings a fresh perspective, which gives mediation the best possible prospects of success‘. He has an established national and international practice; and the majority of his mediations relate to commercial claims that are evenly spread between disputes involving insurance, international commercial, banking and finance, professional negligence, and company and commercial contracts claims. Howell-Richardson also has investor state mediation expertise, as well as experience handling disputes concerning fraud, IP, IT, healthcare, transport, construction and energy issues.
Kate Jackson is ‘phenomenally knowledgeable and thinks of everything‘, is appointed in approximately 50-55 high-value, complex commercial mediations a year. Others note that she is ‘very well prepared and able to push both sides on their cases; she proposes considered alternatives and keeps pushing for a resolution. In short, she is exactly what parties look for in a mediator‘. Qualified as a lawyer both in England and Wales and New York, the ex-magic circle litigator’s clients range from large public and international companies to individuals with personal grievances (where clients benefit from Jackson’s many years of community mediation and advisory work). In addition to her commercial mediation practice, Jackson has been appointed to the Court of Appeal Mediator Panel.
Michel Kallipetis QC ‘possesses excellent mediation skills. He is simply an outstanding mediator‘. Working on some of the largest mediations in terms of profile and claim value, the former head of Littleton Chambers is one of the busiest commercial mediators in the country. His recent work involved professional negligence claims against solicitors, accountants, auditors, and other construction professionals, as well as claims concerning insurance, property, commercial law, employment, IP, insolvency, and trusts issues. He recently received instructions from the UK, Europe, Australia, the US, Gibraltar, Dubai, Hong Kong, the British Virgin Islands and Singapore.
Jonathan Lloyd-Jones is ‘excellent; he is intelligent, quick to get the issues, can deal with clients and gets results‘. Lloyd-Jones has practised exclusively as a commercial mediator with Independent Mediators since 2012 and is ‘a go to mediator, who is top of the list. He is always well prepared, understands the commercial (as well as the legal) issues at play, and takes the time to develop a relationship with – and gain the trust of – the people involved‘. His practice covers a wide range of commercial topics, including claims for restitution based on fraud, breaches of restrictive covenants by departing employees, and professional negligence claims against professionals including solicitors, accountants, architects, surveyors and insurance brokers.
Mark Lomas QC joined Independent Mediators in 2009, having ceased practicing at the Bar to become a full-time mediator. Lomas ‘is by far and away the best mediator‘ for some and ‘he is always well prepared, has thought about the dispute, has the necessary gravitas to deal with difficult parties, and is forceful yet charming and effective‘. As one of the UK’s busiest commercial mediators, Lomas acts regularly as sole or lead mediator in mediations, which cover a wide variety of disputes. These include high-value matters in the commercial contracts, insurance, banking and financial services, construction, probate and trusts arenas. He also has a particularly strong reputation in relation to professional negligence mandates.
Bill Marsh ‘has all of the qualities required of an effective mediator and is worthy of his top rating in this field‘. Marsh is ‘calm, in control of events, and extremely patient and adept at getting both sides to focus on the issues‘. He has been involved in full-time in mediation since 1991 and has a broad commercial mediation practice that continues to grow, particularly internationally, with recent instructions from the Balkans, Russia, Netherlands, Greece, US, India, France, Singapore, and the Gulf. Representative mediations have concerned disputes involving banking, sport and major environmental issues, and oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and gold mining matters. Marsh is also an international mediator for the Singapore International Mediation Centre, the Centre for Mediation and Law in Moscow, and the Bombay Centre for Mediation and Conciliation.
Andrew Paton is ‘a master of his craft, who helps parties get deals done‘, he joined Independent Mediators as a full-time mediator in 2016; previously he worked as a mediator through Pinsent Masons LLP while practising as a solicitor. He is ‘one of the longest serving and most experienced mediators on the circuit, and his experience shows in the way he is able to cope with challenging situations and chart a way through them. He is very thorough but never loses sight of the wood for the trees – he keeps the parties focused on the bottom line‘. Paton has mediated over 1145 matters to date, with over half of his mediations in 2019 involving professional negligence claims relating to solicitors, accountants, financial advisers, insurance brokers, architects and other construction professionals.
Nicholas Pryor is ‘first rate, and he has an excellent rapport with clients and a no-nonsense, effective approach to cracking the toughest of cases‘. Pryor was involved with the foundation of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) and has mediated disputes in Britain, the US, Europe, and the Middle East and Far East. He mediates cases across a broad spectrum of UK-based and international disputes, with general commercial claims representing approximately 20% of Pryor’s practice and a further 40% relating to professional negligence claims. The balance of his practice was recently mostly evenly spread between construction, employment, IP, insolvency and partnership disputes.