Rachael is a dispute resolution specialist, mediator and accredited negotiator. She provides mediation (online and face-to-face), negotiation and consultancy services to clients in the UK and internationally. She is registered as a civil and commercial mediator with the Civil Mediation Council (UK), a Specialist Mediator with the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association (UK) and is on the panels for the Edinburgh Sheriff Court Mediation Service and the Mediation Clinic at the University of Strathclyde. She is also a CEDR Accredited Negotiator, a (Mediator) Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, an Accredited Specialist in Professional Negligence Law from the Law Society of Scotland and an alumnus of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
Rachael practised as a dispute resolution solicitor for 12 years in two of the UK’s most successful premium law firms before founding Squaring Circles; a specialist dispute resolution business which helps clients negotiate creative solutions, manage disputes and differences to avoid and de-escalate conflict, and resolve disputes out of court.
Rachael has significant experience as a negotiating party in disputes ranging in value from tens of thousands to multimillions, where she has represented clients in countless mediations and solicitor to solicitor negotiations. She combines her legal expertise with her specialist knowledge of advanced negotiation and mediation to provide face to face and online mediation and negotiation services across a broad range of sectors.
Rachael’s experience of managing and negotiating a broad range of disputes, from those which have a strong emotional impact, to those where the parties are more commercially driven, enables her to appropriately adapt her mediation style to the needs of the parties, and provide legal or commercial challenge when necessary. Rachael is empathetic, engaging, inquisitive and tenacious. She works hard to put the parties at ease, to help them better understand each other, to see things differently, and to become invested in creatively exploring a way forward.
Batchelor of Law (LLB Hons) from the University of Edinburgh: 2003;
Diploma in Legal Practice (DipLP) from the University of Edinburgh: 2005
Available on request.