After reading law at Edinburgh University, I studied for the Law Society of England & Wales professional examinations at Bristol Polytechnic (now UWE Bristol) and qualified as a solicitor in 1973. I worked for three leading London firms, mainly in dispute resolution: litigation, arbitration and mediation, especially in the fields of commercial law, competition law, contentious trusts and probate, professional negligence, property, solicitors’ costs and compliance.
In 2015 I became a CEDR accredited mediator, following which I worked alongside some of the country's leading mediators as an observer/assistant mediator, prior to mediating a very wide range of disputes on my own. I am registered with, and a panel member of, the Civil Mediation Council (including the Fixed Fee Scheme). I am also a senior mediation member of The Barrister Group ADR (formerly Clerksroom), the Society of Mediators, Unity Legal Solutions and Wandsworth Mediation Service (Commercial Panel). I am also a registered CEDR adjudicator (consumer panel).
From 2003 to 2013, I was managing partner of Gordon Dadds (with which firm I spent the greater part of my career until my retirement at the end of August 2017). Consequently I am aware of the commercial pressures and demands on those running businesses and the need to find a realistic and workable solution to time consuming and expensive disputes without simply papering over the cracks.
I have also advised many private individuals who are unaccustomed to being involved with the legal system and I have developed a reputation for guiding them through an unfamiliar process with tact and sensitivity.
I was President of the London Solicitors Litigation Association from 1998 to 2000 at the time of the Woolf Reforms to civil procedure, which encouraged and incentivised litigants to mediate. I am a long-standing member of the Society for Computers and Law and The Law Society.
On a personal note, I live in London and I am married with two grown up children and four grandchildren. My interests outside work and family include choral singing, golf and walking as well as reading, cooking and visiting art galleries. I am a liveryman of the Merchant Taylors’ Company.
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