On 16 November 2011, Herbert Smith co-hosted a client seminar entitled "What defines success in mediation?". This event was one of a series of "Y-ADR" seminars provided by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR).
The event consisted of a lively panel discussion and question and answer session focussing on the question "What defines success in mediation?". Conventional wisdom might suggest that a mediation which does not result in a settlement on the day itself constitutes failure. But is this really the case? As the costs of litigation and arbitration continue to rise and mediation is increasingly used as one of a menu of options for resolving large scale and ever more complex disputes, the mediation itself may form only one step on the road towards settlement.The panel consisted of the following speakers, all of whom have significant experience in the use of ADR:
- Erin Gleason-Alvarez, Director – Office of Dispute Resolution, Litigation Management, Chartis Insurance, New York
- Ute Joas-Quinn, Associate General Counsel – Upstream International Functions, Shell, The Hague, Netherlands
- Richard Blann, Head of Litigation – Lloyds Banking Group, London
- John Gilbert, Senior Legal Advisor – Dispute Resolution team, BP, London
- Anthony Monaghan, Manager – Enforcement and Financial Crime division (retail), Financial Services Authority, London
- Alexander Oddy, Partner and Head of ADR – Dispute resolution, Herbert Smith LLP, London
The panel discussion was moderated by David Phillips, Professional Development Lawyer in Herbert Smith's disputes practice, and welcome remarks were given by Olivier André of the CPR Institute and Dr Gillian Dada of GlaxoSmithKline.
Alexander Oddy has written a blog post on the topic of the definition of success in mediation, which was published in the Kluwer mediation blog on 1 December 2011. Click here to view the post.