INFLUENCING SKILLS
(Each piece of feedback is from a different individual)

“He was certainly firm in his scrutiny with us and as I say I don’t know how firm he was with the other side, I’m assuming that he was the same.

I think the rigour of scrutiny is the key to success. The thing that I think is most important for a mediator is to put both sides under pressure and yet not leave the feeling with either side that he lacks empathy or that he is against them. It’s quite a tricky line and a good mediator, and he was a good mediator, will walk that line successfully.”
Barrister, London

“I think the fact that he is so insightful, he got to the nub of the issue facing the group very, very quickly and was able to hone in on that and focus the group on that discussion.

I think he’s quite collegiate, and that he makes people feel that everyone’s opinion is valuable and I think that’s awfully useful in encouraging people to speak out and to join the debate.”
Head of Legal/Company Secretary, UK manufacturing plc

“I don’t know many mediators but I’ve seen 3 or 4 and he in my mind is the best by head and shoulder. I like his manner, I just think he’s a very calming but clearly intelligent influence on the whole process.”
Partner, Forensic Accounting, UK accounting firm

“He didn’t impose himself – he got the right balance I think.”
Partner, International law firm

“He got the most out of everyone. He was very good at making sure everyone spoke, everyone got their views out and I think he was just very good at watching everyone in the room to keep them engaged. Stuart’s very good at recognising that people have got different motives for being there and getting the best out of everyone.

He was really good. He was very good at understanding what we needed and the feedback that came back out of it was very positive. His manner is very calm and Stuart is very good at not giving you the answer
to a problem but helping you. He suggests things that make you think about things in a different way, and then come to a different solution.

He’s got very good influencing skills.

I think he’s got a wealth of experience, which shows. He clearly
knows his stuff and he’s very good at people management and that comes across so clearly when you see him, not managing people
in a negative way.

Generally his use of language is very clever, the way he poses questions. You’re not conscious of it when he’s doing it, but I am conscious of the fact that it probably is his language because if somebody else says the same thing to me but in a different way I would react differently. So I put it down to his use of language and his body language is very open.

He’s extremely well liked. People generally are for a reason, aren’t
they. Very well respected, very well mannered, very well liked
and he’s got a very personable manner about him. I would certainly
recommend Stuart.”
Head of Legal/Company Secretary, UK services plc

“Something that stood out was the way in which he communicated with the parties. He always made sure that he was very fair and very measured, but at the same time he pushed both parties, but not in a way that was awkward at any stage.

His manner and the way he dealt with the parties was measured and fair and was absolutely right for our particular circumstances.”
Solicitor, International law firm

“What he did well was to show empathy with each party and yet retaining a certain amount of firmness and authority.

It’s hopeless to have somebody about whom one gets the impression that they don’t really care at all what the result is, it’s really up to the parties and they’re just there to convey information from one side to the other. He seemed to impress my clients with his grasp of matters, and with his empathy.

Those are two very important things.”
Barrister, London

“I think that he’s got a good enough personality to be quite forceful, he’s not the sort of mediator who just sort of sits back, he’s quite interventionist.”
Barrister, Leeds

“There were a number of things that he did well. I’ve got very extensive experience of mediation, I’ve managed to work with a whole raft of them from the most highly regarded in terms of the publications, through to local panel mediators.

Whatever he thought, he retained that degree of independence to enable the parties to retain their trust in him. He was able to develop a significant degree of empathy with the respective parties, and the trust he was able to develop assisted in the subsequent resolution. I think without that we’d probably still have a hearing pending before the Court of Appeal.

He’s got a personality that lends itself well to the process I think. He is quite a warm chap in terms of his personality, he’s quite personable, he’s able to develop relationships I think quickly.

He was able to develop the trust that’s needed to achieve a resolution, to have empathy with the respective parties’ positions. He’s a bright bloke as well, he’s able to convey his thoughts articulately, succinctly, in a persuasive way. He’s quite persistent, able to retain an objective view, whilst developing empathy and trust with the parties.

He just did a good job for us and as I say I can measure his performance against the broad spectrum.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“One of his particular strengths was the ability to bring the lay client to a realisation of both his strengths and his weaknesses, and consequently the need to resolve this at the mediation. Basically bringing home the reality of the situation to the lay client.”
Barrister, London

“Stuart is professional, affable but not overly friendly, and positive. He engaged with all parties in our room while some mediators only bother with the barrister, and he had been very accessible beforehand.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“Stuart was excellent, very good. Very frank,open, appropriately challenging, not accepting of everything that was put to him, careful always to differentiate between what was communicable and what was not, and what he was and was not able to comment upon. Respecting the confidentiality of each room he was in, or each party he was speaking to.

It was intelligent perspective, it wasn’t just a processing that we were getting from Stuart. That was very positive – the ability to communicate was good, I think he had the bank’s confidence and he certainly had ours. So he was having to juggle a number of different views and cater for the different requirements each of them had. They all had their own little agendas, but he understood that I think.

He’s a very well rounded lawyer and mediator, even though he’s very young as a mediator. He has a conciliatory approach, but backed
by a firm protagonist approach to commercial litigation which has served him very well as a mediator. He’s very comfortable taking a hard line,
not at all afraid of the confrontation of the argument. He’s more than prepared to coax out of a situation a settlement that might mean that it’s less than what the requirement was, or the expectation was. But for the benefit he gives that party, which is something he has to identify, that works very well.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“I thought he was good. I mean the mediation settled. It was a difficult mediation in terms of the characters.

It’s quite difficult for clients to work with mediators, because it always involves compromise from the clients. I thought he was very good at arguing the points with the clients.

He empathised very well with the client, but at the same time he was good at chivvying them along and introducing the commercial aspect.
He didn’t flap, he seemed to be in control the whole time, and it’s always good to feel you’ve got somebody that’s calm and that it’s in a safe pair of hands.

He responded to the client, he empathised with them but at the same time he wasn’t bullied by the client in any way, which was good because obviously when he was in the other room with the other side I assume and expect that he will have been the same with them.”
Senior Associate, International law firm

“The overall experience was good. It was positive. He’s a good lawyer, which makes a difference.

It was a very difficult dispute with personalities writ large all over it,
it was a firm of accountants who had come to blows with each other
and it was daggers drawn. So there were big emotions going on all
ver the place. He was very good at keeping those in check.

He was quietly competent on the law, which was quite good, so he was able to test our side and indeed the other side quite effectively to make sure that we understood what our position was, and whether we were perhaps getting the law right. 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.

So he was good at that and he’s a nice chap as well and nobody fell
out with him, which is good for mediation because sometimes you
can fall out with people - very easy to do.

He had a good pot of experience and he’s obviously a good solid lawyer with good communication skills, which is about all you can ask for from
a mediator and he wasn’t the big ‘I am’ like some of them are. Some can just be insufferably pompous and ‘I am’ about the whole thing, and ‘you’ll do what I tell you to do’ kind of thing, which immediately makes you think ‘no I won’t do anything of the sort’.

He’s a good man, I enjoyed the experience. I really would recommend him to others, he was impressive and you can’t say that of them all.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“He was very, very good. I found his manner and style to be very relaxed and it created a good atmosphere. As is often the case with mediation we’d got two parties who didn’t really like each other and certainly my client was initially very reluctant even to be in the same room as the other party, and Stuart did encourage my client to do that, and it did mean that we had a slightly better atmosphere for reaching a compromise.

My client started off feeling very ill disposed towards the other side
and I think one of the things that Stuart managed to do was to make my client realise that there were merits on both sides, and there were strong feelings on both sides, so that the other party didn’t come out of the picture so demonised as my client thought he was really.

I would definitely use him again.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“He applied objectivity and he was calm. But he also didn’t as I found some other mediators do express an opinion about the strength of our opponent’s case, or the manner in which the case was being presented.

In the circumstances of those types of comments being made in the past I didn’t find them helpful. And I noticed that Stuart was very careful not to stray into that sort of thing.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“I think what he did in that particular case is he managed to overcome a sticking point, a very difficult issue between two former friends who had been in business together and fallen out. And there was the usual sort of nastiness there. We got to a point where it needed a shove to the other side in order to do the deal and Stuart affected that shove.

That was what was needed. It was not very much money in the context of what was being argued about, but the parties had got stuck into a point of principle and we were a bit disappointed I have to say with the way the other side had conducted the mediation. We made our view very clear and I have to suspect that Stuart communicated that, and that his advice led to a sufficient gesture on their part that honour could be saved and the deal done.”
Barrister, Leeds

“I think his ability to build up a relationship in a very limited amount of time with clients, I think that was good. I can’t say what the other side’s perception of him was, but certainly we found him very good. He had a gentle style and it was a good result in the case, the client was happy with the result, which is always in my view a good result. It was a good performance.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“It’s hopeless to have somebody about whom one gets the impression that they don’t really care at all what the result is - it’s really up to the parties and the mediator is just there to convey information from one side to the other. What he did well was to show empathy with each party while retaining a certain amount of firmness and authority, as somebody who is competent.”
Barrister, London

“Very frank, open, appropriately challenging, not accepting of everything that was put to him, careful always to differentiate between what was communicable and what was not, and what he was and was not able to comment upon. Respecting the confidentiality of each room he was in, or each party he was speaking to.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“I felt that Stuart’s handling of it was very sensitive to the particular circumstances we were dealing with. 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.

I just think that his very calm, considered manner worked very well with this case where we’d got difficult parties. The other thing I would pick out is his even-handedness between the parties and he was particularly careful about us all being clear what communications he was having with the other parties and when – both during and before the two mediation days.

Also the respect that was given to confidentiality and the extent to which things that were said in your private sessions were revealed to the other side. I think that’s quite important because I think some mediators can be closer to the edges of that issue in terms of potentially repeating things or summarising things that go beyond what maybe the parties are comfortable at having repeated.

I have great confidence that Stuart wouldn’t cross that line, he is very clear and straight with everybody which I think is important, but it was particularly notable with Stuart.”
Partner, International law firm

“I found his manner and style to be very relaxed and it created a good atmosphere. It was all very positive and I hope we’ll have an opportunity to use Stuart again.”
Partner, Regional law firm

“I thought he was very personable. He applied his, in so far as you can as a mediator, but I think he drew on his own knowledge in order to perhaps guide the parties to consider what the salient issues were.

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 managed the parties well. He wasn’t a passive mediator; he wasn’t afraid to roll his sleeves up and get stuck in, which meant essentially querying people’s positions on matters, dealing with some of the more complex legal points and testing out both sides’ position.”
Partner, Regional law firm