Independent Mediators

Mediation

Jane is a leading international mediator with a wide-ranging commercial practice and over 30 years’ experience as a commercial litigation solicitor in City practices.

Jane is a well-known commercial mediator, based in the UK. Practising as a mediator for over 20 years and now with Independent Mediators she also mediates for institutions such as ICC, WIPO and SIMC. Jane has also recently been asked to join panels in Japan, Indonesia and India. A commercial and pragmatic mediator, Jane’s practice ranges from technology and media sectors to general commercial cases involving joint ventures, consortia and project disputes. Consistently ranked in all the legal directories, Jane was the winner of the Corporate Livewire 2015 Legal Award for Commercial Mediator of the Year – UK. Jane also won the International Law Office (ILO) Client Choice Award 2012 in the litigation category for the UK. She has also ranked in the “Top 50 Mediators” in the UK.

Jane is particularly recommended for mediations where there are strong personalities and where there may be some cynicism towards resolution through mediation. She has an “engaging style” and is “clearly committed”. Users praised her for her “proactive approach” and “people skills”.

Comments include: “Jane gets stuck in and is easy to work with. She was a lawyer for many years so understands the litigation risks at play but she uses the right mix of intellectual ability and commercial awareness to help parties and their lawyers get a deal done.” She is further described as “robust but in a gently persuasive way” and “full of energy trying every angle to find a solution”. Referees also state “despite being a lawyer, Jane was good at steering clear of the law and ensuring that the clients’ commercial interests were best served on the day” and “Jane works well with lawyers present to play an independent but engaged role in assisting their clients to reach agreement”.

Jane is still a firm advocate of “in life” mediation and has seen an increase in her appointments especially in an economically challenging time for business. The use of mediation techniques earlier in business relationships to help parties maintain their commitment to the deal as opposed to focusing on legal rights and obligations once things go wrong, continues to prove very successful. This supports business organisations’ desire to behave responsibly and form long-term strategic relationships.

Jane joined King & Spalding in April 2012 where she was a partner in their London Disputes Group until 31 March 2017. Prior to that Jane was the co-head of the International Dispute Resolution Group at Bird & Bird which she joined in 2002. Before that, Jane spent 10 years with DLA Piper as head of their London Disputes team and seven years with Turner Kenneth Brown having qualified as a solicitor in 1987.

Jane was accredited by CEDR in 2001 but has been mediating as counsel since 1992. Jane was privy to some of the first mediations in the UK having started her career at Turner Kenneth Brown. From 2001 Jane combined her busy mediation career whilst maintaining her demanding legal practices in International law firms. Jane became a full time mediator on 1 April 2017.

Jane undertook the International Advanced Mediation course with MATA (Mediation and Training Alternatives) in 2007 and again in 2016 and participated in an ICC cross cultural mediation course in 2009. She was a member of the MATA and CEDR faculty for training mediators for many years. Additionally, Jane was appointed as a Distinguished Fellow to the International Academy of Mediators in March 2016, is a member of the Follet Group, a group of top female mediators, is on the IMI Users Counsel and was a past co-chair of the IBA Mediation section. Jane is currently co- chair of two of the seven working groups of the IMI/CCA/Strauss Institute of Dispute Resolution International Task force. Jane ensures she stays up to date with the latest mediation techniques and methodologies and is actively engaged within the mediation community.

Distinguished Fellow of International Academy of Mediators Panel Mediator for Singapore International Mediation Centre Panel Mediator for WIPO Panel Mediator for Japan International Mediation Centre ICC Mediator International Mediation Institute Certified Mediator Board Member of CIaM, Madrid Board Member of LCAM, London Fellow of the CMC