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In my experience, parties and counsel are clear in what they expect an effective mediator to deliver. They want a mediator who:

Ø       Never gives up

Ø       Understands and appreciates the role of counsel

Ø       Listens and will ‘do no harm’

Ø       Has a broad litigation background

Ø       Has a respect for and an ability to connect with parties

Ø       Understands and has sufficient experience to protect counsels’ litigation strategies

Ø       Understands and respects the mediation process

Ø       Never gives up

My aim is to conduct the mediation in a manner that does not interfere with the litigation process. This is not always straightforward and I attempt to do this by being creative, by being persistent and by understanding and respecting the process, the parties and counsel.

I hope my reputation is as a proactive mediator who adds real value and is able to facilitate and assist in the settlement of the most difficult multi issue and hotly debated cases.

Although there are many ways to measure the effectiveness of a mediator and the mediation process, parties to mediation are often primarily interested in a mediator’s resolution rate – with that qualification, my resolution rate in 2003 - 2005 was above thr 90% level and I expect that to continue in 2006 so that means only a small handful of my cases do not settle at mediation.

Parties may also like to know something of how a mediator and the mediation process work and I am happy to share that information upon request.

"The entire legal profession… has become so mesmerized with the stimulation of the courtroom contest, that we tend to forget that we ought to be healers of conflict… trial by adversarial contest must in time go the way of the ancient trial by battle and blood… our system has become too costly, too painful, too destructive, too inefficient for truly civilized people."

United States Chief Justice Warren Burger, from his 1984 “The State of Justice” speech