PREPARATION AND GRASP OF ISSUES
(Each piece of feedback is from a different individual)

“He’d read the papers thoroughly so when we raised a point he didn’t say ‘oh yeah, yeah I missed that’. Very few mediators do, but senior lawyers have a poor reputation for winging it – he had two thick lever arch files to read, I would guess approaching 800 or 900 pages and he needed to have read them, and he had. That was important.”
Barrister, London

“I think being a litigator it does teach you to hone to the root of the problem very quickly, you know these are the legal issues you need to face, and these are the matters we can raise as a defence. So I think his background training in litigation probably helps with his being able to get to identify the real issues very quickly.”
Head of Legal/Company Secretary, UK manufacturing plc

“Very well prepared. Very careful. I would say effective. I think he’s got a good grasp of legal issues. I think he understands the case. A lot of mediators that you deal with don’t really understand what’s going on. He’s well prepared.”
Barrister, Leeds

“As a facilitator he was very thorough in terms of his research. He came to dinner with us all the night before and I think he made a conscious effort to ensure that he had spoken to everyone and understood the politics, and personalities.

Then when we went into the mediation - he was firm and fair and polite, but still firm. He wasn’t rude, but he kept us on track, he made sure we delivered the outputs that we said we wanted to deliver at the start. He’d taken on board everything that I said that I was trying to achieve, and because he’d had a conversation [with everybody else] the night before, he’d taken on board what they were trying to achieve.”
Head of Legal/Company Secretary, UK services plc

“It was a difficult case. Stuart got a very quick grip of the case, he did very well in terms of the pre-mediation both reading and discussion with the lawyers to get on top of it. He was well ready to deal with the first day of the mediation.

I was comfortable to rely on Stuart’s judgement as to the best way to handle the mediation perhaps to a greater extent than I have been with other mediators, because I really felt that he’d invested the time to understand the dynamics.”
Partner, International law firm

“I think he had a good grasp of the situation. He did the whole thing very well.”
Partner, Forensic Accounting, UK accounting firm

He’s basically above all else a good lawyer, he was able to understand what the heck was going on, which helps when you’re mediating because you can wheedle out from people whether or not their position is completely tenable or not.

I really would recommend him to others, he was impressive and you can’t say that of them all.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“What he did well in the first instance - there’s always a concern about the mediator’s ability to fully understand the issues, but Stuart didn’t have a problem in that regard, with his background. Some aren’t really able to fully understand, on occasions, the intricacies of a dispute, but Stuart was able to get to grips with the factual issues relatively quickly. It was a relatively complex dispute.

He had the facts at his fingertips, he was able to understand the issues. It was clear that he was able to form his own view without seeking to impose that view on the parties. Whatever he thought, he retained the degree of independence to enable the parties to retain their trust in him.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“He remained committed to the mediation process, he made it very clear that he was well prepared and he’d taken the trouble to get to know the solicitors before the mediation process began. He certainly had the confidence of my team during the process.”
Barrister, Leeds

“He was very good. I think that he had a lot of hands on prior to the mediation. He did spend some time speaking to both parties, and when I say both parties, the solicitors as well as the individuals. I can’t say what the other side’s perception of him was, but certainly we found him very good.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“It was a commercial litigation matter and obviously Stuart has vast experience in dealing with this type of litigation, so it was quite useful to be able to draw on someone who had that knowledge and experience and could then apply it through the mediation process in order to facilitate a settlement. He was there to achieve exactly what we wanted to achieve, which was a settlement. He got to work very quickly, got the parties together, got the parties talking. He cut through the mist that always flies around in a mediation to get to the substantive issues and to work through those.”
Associate, Regional law firm

“He identified the issues in dispute quite closely and he wasn’t a passive mediator, he wasn’t afraid to roll his sleeves up and get stuck in, which meant querying people’s positions on matters, dealing with some of the more complex legal points and testing out positions.

He wasn’t a mediator in the style of someone who just turns up, does the mediation and goes away. There was quite a lot of interaction with the parties prior to the mediation, and also thereafter.

It was quite essential to have someone who was aware of the legal principles behind that sort of situation [directors’ and employees’ duties].”
Partner, UK law firm