CIArb's Mediation Symposium is sell-out success for 2nd year
CIArb News / 04 November 2009
CIArb's 2nd Annual Mediation Symposium last Thursday was a sell-out success, for the second year running.
The annual event aims to support the professional development and education of mediators and address issues of interest to the mediation community. This year's event drew a very high-profile audience of mediation practitioners, judges, QCs, commercial lawyers and academics from countries as far afield as Australia, Italy, Kenya and Bahrain.
John Campbell QC, FCIArb, CIArb President, delivered an excellent keynote address introducing the enviable line-up of speakers including Lord Woolf FCIArb, a pioneer of mediation in the UK, Giovanni De Berti FCIArb (Mediation), Lorraine Brennan, Michael Cover FCIArb, David Cornes FCIArb (Mediation) and (out of shot) Michel Kallipetis QC, FCIArb (Mediation) and Tim Hardy.
Contribution to mediation
Aaron Hudson-Tyreman MCIArb, Director of Research and Development at CIArb, said: "CIArb's 2nd Mediation Symposium has again proved extremely successful and proves that interest in mediation continues to grow and grow. The feedback from our delegates has been very positive and we would like to thank them for participating in the event so fully. We hope that the Mediation Symposium and the accompanying compendium of papers will contribute positively to the body of ADR knowledge within the CIArb membership and beyond.
"CIArb would like to thank the mediation experts who gave their time to speak at the event and particularly to CMS Cameron McKenna LLP for their fantastic hospitality and generosity in providing the conference facilities and catering for the event."
Developing the market
One of the main topics addressed by the panel was the crucial importance of developing the mediation market. A range of practical measures was suggested to increase the use of mediation by the end-user based around more effective communication with private practice and in-house lawyers, judges, business decision makers and politicians.
"The education and development of the mediation market is of huge importance and the responsibility for this rests not only with mediators but also academic institutions, lawyers, professional bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, judges and government," said Michael Cover FCIArb, an accredited mediator and member of CIArb's Practice and Standards Committee.
The role of Judges
Judges are crucial to the process, said the panel. Using examples of successful court-referred mediation schemes from around the world, Giovanni de Berti FCIArb showed that there had been a gradual change of attitude in favour of introducing alternative dispute resolution into court, and judges had a huge part to play in this. It was also noted that court-referred mediation may be given a further boost by the implementation of the EU Mediation Directive.
The panel said that public investment is needed to support such developments, but that mediation offered significant savings, to society, the economy and the public purse in reducing conflict fairly and cost-effectively.
Judges as mediators
Complementing this theme, CIArb was delighted to welcome Lord Woolf FCIArb, a judge and mediator who spoke on the topic of judges acting as mediators.
Answering his own question, "can judges be mediators?", Lord Woolf said "Yes, if they are prepared to learn new skills." He said that, in creating a winner and a loser, litigation often damaged the relationship between the parties and its effect was to drive the parties apart when they needed to live together afterwards. He argued that a judge was particularly well-placed to be a mediator because "he knows more about what is wanted and why."
In the future, he said, there were likely to be many more judges becoming mediators. He said that the presence of judges acting as mediators should be welcomed and should be backed by new training so they were able to identify cases suitable for mediation.
Concluding, Lord Woolf said, "Mediation can produce a result which the court never could. In the commercial world, it will be increasingly important to introduce mediation into business activities. We are only at the beginning of finding out what mediation has to offer."
Practical experiences and workshop
After lunch, Bill Wood QC, Bill Marsh, Phillip Howell-Richardson FCIArb and Quentin Smith looked at the practical experiences of mediators, in a lively session entitled "mediation horrors and how to handle them."
Delegates then got the opportunity to put their skills into practice, through participation in a choice of hands-on workshops on co-mediation, hybrid forms of dispute resolution such as arb-med and med-arb, nonviolent communication (NVC), neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and workplace mediation. The sessions were presented by leading mediation trainers including Jane Gunn FCIArb (Mediation), Alan Limbury FCIArb (Mediation), Anna Finlayson, James Savory MCIArb, Eve Pienaar and Aled Davies.
Later, guests enjoyed a champagne reception at the conclusion of what was a very successful day.
Compendium of papers
A compendium of the papers presented by the speakers at the event is available from CIArb at a cost of £15 to members and £25 to non-members, including postage and packing. Please send a cheque made payable to The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators to: Julio Cesar Betancourt, The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, 12 Bloomsbury Square, London, WC1A 2LP
If you are interested in getting involved in the next Annual Mediation Symposium, please contact Aaron Hudson-Tyreman.