Ropewalk Chambers

Commercial, property and chancery and public sector and not-for-profit.

Stephen has extensive experience both as a mediator and as a mediation advocate. He was an early proponent of the process as a means of resolving civil disputes and has vast experience of successfully concluding disputes through mediation.

He is a long-standing ADRg trained and accredited mediator. Before retiring from the Bar, he was in private practice at Ropewalk Chambers, Nottingham focusing upon commercial, contract and land disputes with a reputation for enthusiasm, integrity, hard work, a quick grasp of the factual and technical details of complex disputes and being a safe pair of hands.

He has consistently been specifically identified for praise in commercial dispute resolution each year in the Legal 500 and Chambers (independent legal directories based on research and sounding professional clients). He also headed Ropewalk Chambers mediation services until his retirement.

His involvement in mediations as an advocate has enabled him to see a large variety of mediators’ styles and techniques from the consumer’s perspective. This, added to his extensive experience as a mediator, enables him to form an informed view upon the best routes to settlement in the particular case.

He utilises flexible and innovative approaches in appropriate cases and encourages the parties to think in new ways about their dispute and its resolution. He has successfully mediated disputes over a wide range of subject matters involving both multi-million-pound claims and disputes where the issues are based more on principles than immediate financial value.

He attributes his success as a mediator to a combination of careful preparation, a thorough understanding of the dispute, appreciating what the parties want out of the process and speedily achieving rapport with, and the trust of, the lawyers and their clients. He firmly believes that each lay client must feel at ease and at the center of the process even when a mediator robustly challenges entrenched positions. Professional and lay clients have frequently praised him for his empathy and his quick grasp of the crucial issues and how to achieve a satisfactory outcome.

He aims to provide the very best service at a competitive, reasonable price.

Recent mediations have included resolving:

• Disputes between a local authority and employees concerning terms of service
• Competing Inheritance Act claims
• Dispute between different factions within a company’s board of directors
• Insurance claim involving personal injury compensation
• Civil fraud claims
• Competing former employee claims
• Conflicting interpretations of testamentary provisions
• Defective goods and services litigation
• Various professional negligence claims (solicitors, IFAs and accountants)
• Departing minority shareholder claims
• Disputes between partners and former partners (commercial entities as well as professional practices)
• Commercial land contract disputes (sales, restrictive covenants, easements etc.)
• Neighbour disputes (including boundaries, rights of way, nuisance etc.)

Called 1976; accredited mediator.

Professional Negligence Bar Association; Planning and Environmental Bar Association; Commercial Bar Association; Midlands Chancery Bar Association.

University of Birmingham (LLB).