Gary Oliver
Senior Clerk
+44 (0) 207 822 7325
Increasingly, court protocols and judges require parties to mediate disputes in an effort to avoid the cost and risk of trial. Mediation is very different from litigation or arbitration. A neutral third party expresses no view on the merits but leads a confidential, bespoke and non-confrontational process aimed at maximising the prospects of settlement (however complex the dispute or entrenched the parties). Blackstone Chambers already has great depth of experience in this rapidly expanding specialism. Its mediators are regularly appointed in the UK and abroad both directly and through In Place of Strife (IPoS), ACI Limited, JAMS International, the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) and other service providers. Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, and Sir David Edward KCMG QC, the former British judge at the European Court of Justice, bring judicial insight. Charles Flint QC, Mark Shaw QC, Jane Mulcahy QC and Kate Gallafent QC are senior barristers whose mediation and litigation practices cover complex commercial cases, employment, insurance, banking and financial services, shareholder claims, professional negligence, media and entertainment, sport and an array of public and regulatory bodies.
