About Our Mediators

Like most mediation service providers, Deal Mediation sub-contracts work to independent mediators when the workload exceeds our in-house capacity.

All of the mediators that we use are accredited by a recognised accreditation body such as CEDR, ADR Group or the Chartered Insititute of Arbitrators.

Our mediators are all experienced business people who have dealt first hand with complex, high value negotiations and have at least an appreciation of business law. Typically they are not lawyers, unless they have worked extensively in-house and ideally outside the legal department, because we have found lawyer-mediators can sometimes be, well, legalistic and focus too much on legal issues to the detriment of the core deal. The one exception to this is our "Neutral Terms" service where we will always use an experienced commercial contracts lawyer-mediator.

Confidentiality, Trust and Ethics

These are very important in selecting a mediator, but very difficult to assess without knowing the individual. We encourage our mediators to have a LinkedIn profile so that prospective clients have some chance of finding common contacts. We also require our mediators to have a Criminal Records Bureau check annually and, if requested, this certificate can be brought to the mediation. We recognise the limitations of these checks, but it is a start.

Avoiding Potential Conflicts of Interest

We never use mediators who are directors, partners or otherwise influential with advisory firms which are likely to be a source of referrals. Similarly, we will not enter into a commercial referral agreement with a firm which is potentially a client or an advisor to potential clients. Finally, we will not deploy mediators who have a close relationship with a particular client nor with an individual representing that client.