Resolving Your Disputes
Out of Court
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meet our panel
Whilst Graham specialises in disputes between company shareholders, the mediators listed below cover a wide range of disputes. Graham helps each of the mediators to employ e-Negotiation technology where appropriate.
Tim Walis
UK
Tim is an experienced litigation lawyer and a fully accredited mediator of more than 25 years. Highly recommended by individuals and insurers, solicitors and barristers, as well as instructions from key industry bodies, including the Civil Justice Council and Ministry of Justice, Tim has mediated on a broad range of civil, commercial and costs disputes.
Tim’s expertise includes, but is by no means limited to, personal injury, clinical (medical) negligence, professional negligence, insurance disputes, property disputes, contentious probate and legal costs matters.
Described as “calm, collected and quietly effective” Tim brings neutrality, integrity and incontrovertible mediation know-how to help resolve the most challenging or complex disputes.
Tim is director of Trust Mediation, the UK's only specialist provider of personal injury and clinical negligence mediation. Trust Mediation is an appointed specialist provider of mediation services for NHS Resolution.
Tim is also the Independent Chairman of Claims Portal Ltd , an online platform for processing low-value personal injury claims. The Ministry of Justice has mandated that claims falling within the scope of the CPR pre-action protocols must be processed using the portal.
Roger Levitt
UK
Roger is an accredited business and property mediator (Elite) and solicitor ranked in the top 10 at Clerksroom based in independent feedback. Roger is a member of The IMI (International Mediation Institute) The Civil Mediation Council Standards and Registration Committee, The Academy of Experts (former Council Member) and Accredited Mediator, CIArb (Member and on their Panel of Senior Commercial and Civil Mediators) ADRg Panel member, The Standing Conference of Mediation Advocates (Advisory Board), AMATI, Clerksroom, The Commercial Mediation Group, The Property Litigation Association, The Law Society. Member of the Business Dispute Resolution Committee (lead by the ICAEW) engaging business and industry in mediation via the ADR Commitment, the RICS working party on Mediation & co-author of the RICS Mediation Guide (1st Edition) January 2015. Member of the Working Party for Mediation Awareness Week. Member of Consensum Mediation, ADR- ODR Panel Member. SLS Panel Member BIMA Founding member / Trustee (Belief in Mediation and Arbitration) a multi faith mediation group.
Roger has mediation experience in Contract, Corporate, Local Authorities, Employment, Workplace, Shareholders, Security and Finance, Pensions, Professional Indemnity, Insurance, Business, Banking, security and Finance, Insolvency Franchising (including international master franchises) Sale and delivery of goods and services / consumer disputes, Debt Management, Retail and Restaurant, Healthcare, and disputes with a religious context, Commercial and Residential Property, Landlord and Tenant, Dilapidations, Break Clauses, Service Charges, Lease renewals, Boundaries and Neighbours, Rights of Way, Rights of Light, Construction, Noise Nuisance, Title, Families at War, over property or wills , trust and probate, Partnership (inc division of assets on relationship or business breakdown).
Roger is passionate that mediation provides a fresh approach, with a 75% success rate at the meeting. Most unresolved cases then settle in the days or weeks following.
Mia Forbes Pirie
UK
Mia is an international mediator, facilitator and coach, who has had careers in law and science. She is a CEDR accredited workplace and commercial mediator. Described as “a quiet storm”, Mia holds a Masters in EC Law from the College of Europe, Bruges and a Masters of Science in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, London. Mia specialises in Energy, Technology and the Environment, as well as matters with a difficult emotional angle. In addition to her corporate clients and former career as a solicitor in a top City of London law firm; Mia has worked with governments, religious organisations and Members of Parliament on topics ranging from nanotechnology and data centres, to gay marriage and the refugee situation. She has advised the US Department of Energy on using facilitated negotiation to develop controversial legislation. Mia is trilingual and has spoken at Chatham House on Conflict Resolution. She has been recognised by We Are the City as an Inspirational Woman.”
Robin Somerville
Robin is not just a barrister and mediator but an entrepreneur who deals with commercial dispute from the perspective of someone who has himself set up, grown and sold three businesses of his own. In one of those he had a complex commercial dispute of his own that settled at mediation. The combination of those experiences allows him to be able not only to understand the legal issues involved, but also to get behind the issues to assist parties identify workable commercial solutions. Robin’s mediations include commercial and contracts, employment tribunals, shareholder disputes, intellectual property, landlord and tenant (deposits and unlawful eviction), unlawful interference, utilities redress, debt, professional negligence, director’s guarantees, director/employee, workplace and employment compromise agreements and insolvency.
UK
Amy J Schmitz
USA
Amy is a lawyer and mediator who also teaches at the University of Missouri.School of Law (Center for Dispute Resolution) as the Elwood L. Thomas Missouri Endowed Professor of Law. Prior to teaching, Amy practiced law with large law firms in Seattle and Minneapolis, and served as a law clerk for the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.
Amy teaches courses in Contracts, Lawyering, Online Dispute Resolution, AI, Data Analytics and the Law, Secured Transactions, Arbitration, International Arbitration, and Consumer Law. She serves on the Association of American Law Schools Executive Committee on Commercial and Consumer Law, is a Fellow of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution, is Co-Chair of the ABA Technology and Dispute Resolution Committee and ODR Task Force, and was an External Scientific Fellow of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg. She also has taught in France, South Africa, and Oxford, England, and has been an expert and liaison for the United Nations working group seeking to create a global online dispute resolution mechanism (UNCITRAL WG III). Professor Schmitz has published over 50 articles in law journals and books, and a book, The New Handshake: Online Dispute Resolution and the Future of Consumer Protection, with Colin Rule.
Colin Rule
USA
Colin has been a mediator for more than 20 years and has presented and trained on mediation around the world.In 2011 Colin co-founded Modria.com, an ODR provider based in Silicon Valley, which was acquired by Tyler Technologies in May 2017. From 2003 to 2011 he was Director of Online Dispute Resolution for eBay and PayPal. Colin is the author of Online Dispute Resolution for Business and The New Handshake: ODR and the Future of Consumer Protection. He serves on the boards of the Consensus Building Institute and the PeaceTech Lab at the United States Institute of Peace. He is currently Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution at UMass-Amherst and a Fellow at the Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School. Colin co-founded Online Resolution, one of the first online dispute resolution (ODR) providers, in 1999 and served as its CEO and President. Colin also worked for several years with the National Institute for Dispute Resolution in Washington, DC, the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, MA, and Mediate.com in Eugene, OR. Colin is currently Vice President of Online Dispute Resolution for Tyler Technologies a company that provides software to enable courts to operate online.
Diana Wallis
UK
Originally a solicitor with more than sixteen years post qualification litigation work in the field of European cross border commercial litigation, she was a partner and Head of Litigation in a medium sized London firm.
She then pursued these interests as a leading legislator in the European Parliament being deeply involved in the creation of the EU Mediation Directive.
Diana is a currently Senior Lecturer of the Law School at the University of Hull and amongst other activities runs their very popular ADR & Mediation Module.
A well-respected figure in mediation circles and former board member of the International Mediation Institute Diana is a frequent speaker at Mediation and legal conferences both in the UK and wider Europe.
She has developed her own mediation practice being a qualified mediator with broad experience of various formats of ADR; arbitration, conciliation and mediation.
Liam Moore
Ireland
Liam is a litigation lawyer (25 years), Collaborative Practitioner and mediator practising in Ireland. He is a keen advocate of “a stitch in time saves nine” approach to intercepting conflict at the earliest possible opportunity in order to preserve relationships and minimise costs.
Liam is also CEO of Ireland’s leading provider of Continuing Professional Development (‘CPD’) to the professions, with a venerable panel of expert speakers which includes the holders of the highest national and European offices in both the public and private sectors, and the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland. Prior to that, Liam was personal advisor to leading Irish, American and European political, business, diplomatic and charitable figures, and ran a successful law practice for many years before working in international real estate in Europe and the Middle East. He continues to be a Consultant to his legal colleagues, and has business interests in the hospitality sector.
Liam is a Program Director and Facilitator for The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the world’s largest foundation devoted to entrepreneurship, education and research. He is responsible for the delivery of their world-leading entrepreneurship and innovation Kauffman FastTrac® programs to Irish and international companies, whether start-ups or existing businesses investigating next-stage growth and opportunity.
Liam is the founder and CEO of An Olive Branch, a service that uses its own unique online portal to aid mediators in encouraging those in dispute to better reframe statements within mediated negotiations.
Ryan Abbott
USA and UK
Ryan is a mediator and arbitrator and a panelist with a variety of national and international dispute resolution service providers.
Ryan is a CEDR-accredited mediator and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb). Professor Abbott has served as partner at a litigation firm, general counsel of a biotechnology company, and of counsel at a firm specializing in transactional matters and intellectual property litigation for life science companies.
In these capacities, he has substantial ADR experience as outside and inside counsel for both claimants and respondents. Professor Abbott is a physician and patent attorney in the United States (California and New York) and a solicitor (non-practicing) in England and Wales.
Graham Ross
Graham is a lawyer/mediator specialising in shareholder disputes. He is a recognised expert in ODR, having launched the first ODR service in the UK in 2001. Graham runs the leading training course in ODR which has been training mediators in mediating online since 2007. Graham is a Fellow of the National Center of Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts and member of the International Council for Online Dispute Resolution, Graham is also a member of the Civil Justice Council’s ODR Advisory Group and ADR Working Party.
Graham has conducted ODR trials for PayPal, HMCTS, the Law Council of Australia and been advisor on ODR to court services in the UK , Canada, Bulgaria, Lithuania and to the Council of Europe.
UK
Clive Freedman
UK
Clive Freedman is a Barrister, CEDR Accredited Mediator and Chartered Arbitrator practising at 3 Verulam Buildings.
Clive’s areas of practice include commercial disputes, information technology, data protection, banking and financial services, fintech and distributed ledger technology, arbitration, mediation and expert determination.
Most of Clive’s mediations have concerned computer software or data migration projects, or allegations of copying of software. He was co-author of the 5th and 6th editions of Kendall on Expert Determination (Sweet & Maxwell) 2014). He co-authored the chapter on cryptocurrencies in the 4th edition of Banking Litigation (Hewetson & Mitchell, Sweet & Maxwell). Clive was a member of the committees which prepared Practice Direction 31B (dealing with Edisclosure) and the TeCSA Protocol on Edisclosure. He is named by Chambers & Partners as a leading junior in Information Technology. Clive is a Fellow of the Society for Computers & Law, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and the British Computer Society (former Chair of its Disciplinary Panel). Clive is also a computer programmer, and has written software for www.bailii.org (court judgments website).
Brian Hutchinson
Ireland
Brian is a chartered arbitrator and accredited mediator. He has served as arbitrator, as arbitrator's Legal Advisor, as party Legal Consultant in a number of domestic and international arbitrations and conciliations with total amounts in dispute in excess of Eur50,000,000; and he has served as expert witness in multi-million pound UK litigation. He is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) arbitrators panel.
Brian is Associate Professor in the UCD Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin. He is a specialist in the fields of Commercial Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution. Brian served on the advisory board of e-Resolution, one of the first bodies accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to provide online arbitration for the resolution of internet Domain Name Disputes. In 2001 he became Project Leader of the pilot phase of the ECODIR (Electronic Consumer Dispute Resolution) project ((www.ecodir.org) supported by the EU Commission and the Irish Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which pioneered the development of online dispute resolution in Europe. He was one of the original participants in the UN ECE ODR forums held in Geneva in 2002 and 2003. He later chaired the EU Commission supported "CCForm" EU IST Thematic Network (IST-2001-34908) Topic Panel 5 - «CCForm and ADR», and has acted as consultant to Irish Government Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, e-business unit; and the Law Reform Commission of Ireland. In 2007-2009 he was Legal Expert and Editor for the European Committee for Standardization's Workshop Agreement on the Standardization of Online Dispute Resolution Tools (CEN/ISS - WS/Stand-ODR) supported by the EU Commission.
Suman Kalani
Suman Kalani is a mediator practising in Mumbai, India. Suman’s area of expertise lies in IPR, Contract, Property, and Technology disputes. Suman teaches law at Pravin Gandhi College of Law in Mumbai. Her PhD research is on Online Dispute Resolution. Suman is the author of three law course books for self-financed courses i.e Banking and Insurance and BFM. She has presented papers at national and international level and has delivered lectures at various institutions on varied topics of law. She is an advisor at the Indian Society of Artificial Intelligence and Law. She is also on the panel of mediators at SAMA, in India.
Suman Kalani is a mediator
practising in Mumbai, India
Suman Kalani
Suman Kalani is a mediator practising in Mumbai, India. Suman’s area of expertise lies in IPR, Contract, Property, and Technology disputes. Suman teaches law at Pravin Gandhi College of Law in Mumbai. Her PhD research is on Online Dispute Resolution. Suman is the author of three law course books for self-financed courses i.e Banking and Insurance and BFM. She has presented papers at national and international level and has delivered lectures at various institutions on varied topics of law. She is an advisor at the Indian Society of Artificial Intelligence and Law. She is also on the panel of mediators at SAMA, in India.
India
Mark Tottenham
Ireland
Mark Tottenham is a barrister, practising in Dublin. He qualified in 2002, and works in the areas of property, probate, construction law and professional negligence. He is also an experienced mediator, having been certified by the Mediators Institute of Ireland in 2010. He specialises mainly in the areas of property, landlord and tenant, and probate disputes, and firmly believes that the mediation process limits the expense of litigation as well resolving much of the bad feeling between the parties.
In 2011, Mark founded Decisis.ie, an online law reporting service, which has searchable reports on over 10,000 judgments of the Irish superior courts, and is widely used by the Irish legal profession. He is also a presenter of Law on Trial, a podcast on legal issues in Ireland and beyond, hosted by The Business Post.
Mark is the author of A Guide to Expert Witness Evidence (Bloomsbury Professional, 2019) and The Reliable Expert Witness (Clarus Press, 2021). He has written and lectured extensively on the subject of expert evidence, including the role of experts at mediation. Mark strongly believes that a collaborative approach between experts in complex trials and arbitrations will assist in narrowing down contentious issues, and help the parties reach resolution.