Hello, my name is Valeriya and I am your Programme Manager for this course. I look forward to meeting you all!
Hello everyone, I'm Isabel, joining from Schwyz, just outside Zurich. I'm a German and English qualified lawyer. I spent most of my career as General Counsel in international groups and now run my own practice doing governance advisory and fractional General Counsel work. In practice, that means spending a lot of time in rooms where people are disagreeing about something that isn't on the agenda, usually who actually gets to decide. I've been handling those conversations on instinct for years and would like to learn to do it properly, which is what brings me here.
Looking forward to meeting you all in December!
Hi everyone. My name is Edgar, and I am apparently the second participant from Switzerland so far! I am a lawyer and my practice focuses on commercial and corporate transactions, as well as on international arbitration in those fields (both as counsel and arbitrator). Over the course of the years, I have come to find that mediation is an extremely effective dispute resolution mechanism in many cases. Therefore, I think it is most useful to be formally trained as a mediator, and this is what I am looking forward to learning with all of you in just over a month from now.
Hi everyone. I'm Frances and work for the UK's largest public sector funder of research leading on our international work from funding to partnership agreements. I am also a former diplomat so interested in learning some more formal mediation techniques to build on my practical experience (which has ranged from lifting import bans to negotiating international treaties).
(and I work a lot with the Swiss research funder SNSF and in my previous role had part of my team in Berne so glad there is a Swiss contingent)
Good afternoon, everyone, I am Nadia Krupska, a UK-registered architect, with a degree in Construction Law. Having worked on a range of construction projects in and around London, I have since moved into advisory work and dispute resolution. My work focuses on technical expert analysis of complex construction disputes, particularly those involving project management failures and design or contractual obligations. I am looking forward to developing my mediation skills and learning from your different perspectives. And of course, meeting you all during the course.
Hello everyone! My name is Lucía and I am currently based in Valencia (Spain) working as a mediator in a mediation center. I have a background in law and have worked in business management. I recently completed a Master's Degree in Mediation and Arbitration and am working on developing a career in ADR. Looking forward to meeting you all in person in December!
Hi all. I am Mel Nebhrajani, a UK Government lawyer for 28 years having started my legal life as a barrister in chambers specialising in trusts and property law. I have been a Director General since October 2021 leading lawyers advising Ministers in most departments over that period. I have also led on HMG's litigation for a number of years. I have just taken up the role of General Counsel to HMRC. I am interested in how we might use mediation techniques in government disputes, including in the context of public inquiries. I am looking forward to meeting you all in December!
Hi All,
My name is James Mapley and I am Senior Associate Construction Solicitor working in our Dispute Resolution team. I am seeing a strategic shift from our clients towards seeking commercial settlement at an early stage and mediation is becoming an increasingly popular vehicle through which to seek such a settlement. I am looking forward to meeting you all and developing my mediation skills. See you all in December.
Hello all. I’m Simon, an exited founder, now working as an adviser, chair and mentor to tech companies from startup to scaleup. My background is in learning technology and organisational development rather than law.
What brings me here is the conflict that doesn't always reach a lawyer in smaller businesses. In the companies I work with, disputes between co-founders, or between a founder and their investors, rarely end in litigation. They risk a business that flatlines, declines or fails, often with a lot of talent and goodwill lost on the way. I’ve been through a co-founder conflict myself, and that experience is a large part of why I want to do something about it. I also chair three peer groups for ~24 founders and CEOs each month, and the same patterns surface there: unresolved tension that everyone can see and nobody has a process for. I want to learn how to run a process properly, rather than on instinct. I see there is an opportunity to make a positive impact through mediation.
Watching the (excellent) sample role plays, it described a situation I’d helped a company through only a few months ago, which was both reassuring and slightly alarming. Looking forward to meeting you all in December.