On 4th November 2016 Nottingham Trent University Law School (NLS) launched their new Centre for Mediation & Dispute Resolution.

Law students, mediation practitioners, legal professionals and academics enjoyed an excellent day of learning and engagement. The morning was reserved for NLS students who had the chance to see a demonstration of mediation punctuated with small group coaching sessions lead by experienced professionals on key points arising out of the demonstration.

For the afternoon session, Professor Richard Butler set the scene with a comprehensive and challenging look at mediation, the benefits for legal practitioners and how the Centre could contribute to professional development.

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to an Open Space collaboration lead by independent commercial mediator, trainer and CMC Trustee, Amanda Bucklow. Open Space is a process for large groups which shares many of the principles and values of mediation. There are 4 principles and 1 law.

The principles are:

1. Whoever comes are the right people
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened
3. Whenever it starts is the right time
4. When it is over, it is over

And the law is, if you are neither contributing nor learning then it is your responsibility to respectfully use your two feet and find somewhere where you can.

It is a very time efficient way to cover many subjects and invites participants to contribute to topics which interest them and on which they are prepared to take action. The ‘agenda’ is co-created by the participants and comprises questions and topics that most interest them.

By the end of just two hours, a wide variety of topics had been debated, suggestions developed and refined and action points recorded. Those ideas and suggestions will be reviewed as part of the Centre’s exercise in deciding how projects might be scoped and prioritised.

The event was rounded off with a stimulating and thought-provoking speech from The Hon Sir Peter Coulson, Judge of the Technology and Construction Court.

The aims and objectives for The Centre of Mediation & Dispute Resolution have been carefully framed to avoid duplicating the efforts of other respected mediation bodies: rather to support and extend their reach and influence whilst providing specialist teaching and experience for NLS students.

‍

‍

‍

The catalyst for setting up the Centre was the observation that there is very little substantive research to underpin the training and accreditation of mediators, the provision of mediation services by organisations and the quality and professionalism of mediators all of which are currently unregulated and unsupervised.

Arguably, this has worked well so far and yet with the expectation that mediation will play a much greater role in dispute resolution comes a corresponding need to both better equip lawyers going into practice and those working in-house with the necessary skills to represent their client and protect their clients’ interests. Currently skills training in this area is piecemeal and inconsistent.

If users and the wider community are to gain the full benefit from the use of mediation and its potential to enrich society, research is needed into these areas.

The vision for the Centre is that it will become the major UK university based centre offering research led commentary and innovative contribution to:

• The role and training of lawyers to be effective as representatives of clients in mediation;
• The most effective and efficient styles of mediation practice with a particular focus on the user perspectives;
• The development of ethical standards and performance indicators likely to achieve acceptance within the mediation community including users as a step towards institutional acceptance and codification;
• The methods of selecting, training and developing individuals as effective mediators with particular regard to current training practices and the validation of institutions.

The intention is to have a practical and practice profile and for the Centre to facilitate, commission and identify commercial funding for research as well as initiating research.

In addition, the Centre for Mediation & Dispute Resolution will also have a practice profile which, it is hoped, will provide a means by which students at NLS via the Legal Advice Centre will be able to take part in mediations alongside local mediators offering a pro bono element to their mediation practice.

CMC warmly welcomes the initiative and looks forward to working with the Centre.

‍

‍