“Alternative Dispute Resolution Process Webinar - Mediator's New Breakfast Club Recording - 12th May 2021”

Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to the mediators new Breakfast Club. My name is Michael Cover, and it's my pleasant duty to welcome you all. I was going to have a look. We currently have 76 participants, but there's about 150 that were originally signed up. Just a note that this session is being recorded and will be made available. later on. Before I introduce our distinguished guests from the Chartered Institute of arbitrators, my colleague and friend Dave Evans, just going to invite 10 of the people attending for the first time, as is our tradition to very briefly introduce themselves. So if I may. Can I hand over to Dave?

 

Thanks, Michael. We've got about 31st timers booked. But I think we aim to try and invite about 10 to introduce themselves. So I've got the list in front of me. If we can start with less Ashford, if you're there less please. No, okay, we'll move on to Eduardo Eduardo Calvo, please. You need to unmute yourself. And when we move on, Susanna Cotterill, please.

 

Yeah, if your name is called, maybe you could put your hand up that would help Martin Susanna Susanna Cottrell. Okay, I will move on, we might be able to come back to them. Haley Mackey. If you could put your hand up handy. That'll make life a lot easier. No, not on. Okay. And Derek Marshall. Oh, he's pretty sound. Yeah. Hello, Derek. unmute yourself. Please unmute myself. Hello.

 

So I'm I'm a barrister from college chambers in Southampton until, until last month, I was the head of chambers. And I've happily handed that responsibility with somebody else. Poor bloke. So I've been mediating for about about 12 years. I'm also a family finance arbitrator, and I sit as the LPC on the police conduct panel. So I've got a fairly eclectic practice. And most of the mediations I see these days tend to be people argue about about wills and and inheritance claims. And so I'm very interested to hear everyone else to say today.

 

Thanks Derek. McMillen Stuart Stuart McMillan Okay, moving on, when he when he polishes pronounciation Alek where we now moving on again, Mary, Mary. Oh, sorry. Can you hear me when he when he Yep. Carry on.

 

Hi, good morning, guys. Hi. And yes, I'm a workplace and commercial mediator. So happy to join the group. And yeah,

 

great stuff that you're doing guys. Thank you very much. Thank you. You're very welcome. Mary panel again, please. Know Harry Harrisburg. Hi, yes, do I think you mean me Harrisburg? barista at a mediator an IPS mediation, a barrister at Guildhall chambers in Bristol. I'm delighted to be here. Thanks for having me. And very nice to see you all. Thank you. Mark. nerissa Tl

 

that's me. It's not David, tell us break your toe, newly qualified mediator. CMC recently retired dentist very pleased to join your group and thank you

 

Thank you. fatale zibin Vitaly okay. I think we can come back to Susanna Cotterill I think you've joined Susanna.

 

Yes. Good morning. Sorry to be late. I'm a bit of a gap playing company for about 15 years. Maybe do family mediations but little bespoke equestrian mediation, so I'm quite well known in that field happily.

 

Thank you. Are there any first other first timers that would like to introduce? Arabella? Yes. Everyone lovely to be here. My name is Arabella tresillian. I'm based in Bath. I mediate with the medical mediation foundation and resolve West and I'm a trainer as well I trained mediators in workplace mediation conversion with cedar and Mental Health First Aid as well. So I specialise in, in mental health particularly, I do health and social care mediation, judicial reviews, court protection, Mental Health Act disputes for the NHS. lovely to be here thankful. Thank you, Arabella. How much did you put your hand up? We can't hear you, Alice. I don't think she is unmuted. Still can't if you don't, you're not shown as mute but you're not. There's no voice, I'm afraid.

 

Okay, Dave, should we get started? That's a representative cross section. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you, everybody. And I'd like to welcome and introduce our guests from the Chartered Institute of arbitrators. Catherine Dixon, who is the Director General, there was Johnson, who's the Assistant Director of Policy and external affairs, and who's also very much involved in the DSO dispute appointment service, which I'm sure is of interest to lots of us. And last but not least, Isabel Phillips, the head of mediation development. So I think that's the running order. So should I hand over to you, Katherine. And off we go. Thank you. Thank

 

you, Michael. And thank you everyone for inviting me along today. We've got a few slides just to talk a little bit about the organisation which I'll just share my screen and then we'll then we'll perhaps because starts

 

secureness just looking for the slideshow. She causes a challenge. Everybody can see that hopefully anyway. So as a starting point, I just

 

tried to move my screen down a little bit so that you can access a slideshow somewhere reason it's no to itself, but I will fiddle around while I introduce myself. So I'm I'm Katherine Dixon. I'm the Director General of the Chartered Institute of arbitrators, and I've been in post since the first of May 2020. So pretty much running the organisation virtually for the last year. And I my background is I'm a solicitor and mediator, I've got an MBA and I've been a chief executive officer probably for around 10 years now. I was chief executive of the Royal Society in Wales. And prior to that I was a chief executive in the NHS, I ran the organisation that indemnifies the the NHS NHS resolution, which deals with all the claims it's got a claim budget of around 1.3 billion per annum. Normally around 16,000 pieces of ongoing litigation and I during my time there, I wasn't able to sort of introduce mediation and start embedding mediation into the NHS. I've also run a sort of large further and higher education, college. But I spent most of my career in in house. I was the commercial and Legal Director at booper, the private health provider and insurer. I was also General Counsel at the NSPCC and I spent a little bit of time living or working In Canada was an Outward Bound instructor for a little while. And then I was a director at Vancouver coastal Health Authority. in private practice, I was a commercial litigator. So I did use alternative dispute resolution or effective dispute resolution on a regular basis. I left school quite early, and that later joined the army. And I was an army officer for a little while. And I'm currently studying the Army Reserve. When I'm not working, I bore people with cycling stories. I just before I joined the chatting to arbitrators, I settled around the world, and I broke the world record for being the fastest person to circumnavigate the world on a tandem. So very happy to talk about cycling as well. So going back to what we're supposed to be talking about, perhaps I'll just hand over very briefly to my two colleagues who are going to speak to today and ask that they introduce themselves. And then I'm going to talk a little bit about the organization's strategy and priorities. And then we're going to get into some more specifics on both our policy work, you know, with a focus on the A PPG. And also specifically on our mediation strategy, which is also going to talk through, but Louis, do you want, would you just like to introduce yourself?

 

Yes, certainly. Thank you, Katherine. And thanks, everybody, for inviting us here today. It's, it's a pleasure to see a lot of familiar faces and also some some unfamiliar faces. So thank you for inviting us. For those who haven't met me before. My name is Louis Johnstone, I'm Assistant Director for policy and External Affairs at the Chartered Institute. My role within the institute is really to ensure that we're fulfilling our our royal charter mandate of promoting and facilitating all forms of ADR as an alternative to the court, and notwithstanding our name of the Chartered Institute of arbitrators, that really is all forms of ADR. And we were very adamant that we wanted to kind of communicate that and emphasise our role as a home for mediators, as well as arbitrators. So that's something that I want to talk about today. In terms of my background, I've been with the institute now for for just over three years. Prior to that, I was head of the parliamentary affairs team, our ICS where I did actually interact with their their own dispute resolution service, their answer was I was familiar with the world of, of ADR. My focus, there was also primarily on housing and infrastructure policy, which are, you know, still still areas of real interest for me. In terms of my own personal life, I can't claim any world records like Katherine, but I do bore my colleagues about marathon training and hoping that once the the lock downs are lifted, I can get back to running marathons again. So yeah, it's a real pleasure to speak to you today. I like to just hand over to my colleague Isabel, head of head of mediation development, you can introduce yourself now as well.

 

Name everyone, lovely to be here. And yeah, as set by title as head of mediation, development, and an organisation like seog, with members across 150 countries in the world. That's quite a wide scope, I know a wide range of needs and situations for mediators across the world. And so I'm looking not just at things like training and development, but also thought leadership and all aspects of how to develop mediation on a global scale. And, by way of background, I have spent my entire career working in mediation and conflict, I decided I wanted to become a mediator in around 9394. And obviously, that was pre CPR. So the concept of becoming a lawyer in order to be a mediator was somewhat alien, given. If one knew at that time people involved in legal proceedings. It was an interesting concept that lawyers might be involved in mediation, I have, of course changed my view heavily but I chose to, therefore not become a lawyer before becoming a mediator. And I've worked across the last 25 or so years in both the context of social socio political mediation and violent conflict as well as commercial. And so I spent extended periods in Bosnia and in Ethiopia, and early on in a number of long term project in the, towards the end of the war in Lebanon in the mid 90s. Um, and I've also spent long periods in commercial work, I was working with Sita for a number of years, and both early on being employed there and then working as a consultant. And I was a faculty member with Sita for for many years as well. And I've spent a part of that time sort of from 2010 onwards, working as a consultant and doing freelance mediation and conflict work, but also researching and writing a PhD on the subject of mediation, and specifically adea, and a CR, and how these two worlds of the the commercial and the socio political do and don't interact with each other. And

 

get like,

 

well, I'm like Katherine, who still gets to cycle I, I'm still waiting to be able to do one of two of the things that that I enjoy doing, pre COVID. And one of them being Argentine Tango, which, unfortunately, is very, very much off limits at the moment. But looking forward to doing that. And I'm very excited to have my first vaccination yesterday. So if you're a radio one listener, there's a little song that goes along with that, but I won't sing it, I won't subject you to that. So great to meet you.

 

Thank you, Louise. Thank you, Isabelle. So I'm going to spend probably 10 minutes or so just talking a little bit about CR, the organisation and the organization's strategy. So it'll be kind of a high level view, I appreciate some of you will be familiar, but perhaps some of you won't. So if you wouldn't mind indulging me and then we'll get into some specifics on on mediation. So say, I'm a global membership organisation, but it's also a professional body in the sense that it has professional standards that we expect members to sign up to adhere to, we've got, actually, since I wrote the slide, we've got actually over 17,000 members now, based around the world, around 150 jurisdictions, we have 41 branches, those branches are actually run by members for members. And those branches tend to deliver training as well as other thought leadership activities, social activities, networking, and, and various, various other related activities. And this, this is kind of what the global membership currently looks like. It's grown a little bit since we put this this together, but you can see that we are, you know, pretty much operating around the world, there are more opportunities for growth, and for more members to join our global community. But you'll see that there's quite a significant number of members in, in Asia, growing numbers in in Africa, opportunities to grow more in Latin America or South America. And we also have members in in North a member of North America, including an off American branch, Canadian branch and branch in New York branches in the Caribbean, and Bahamas. We've got a I think, you know, perhaps traditionally the the organisation has been associated with more common law jurisdictions, English speaking, but actually that is changing and we're seeing a significant number of members now coming from civil civil jurisdictions and to a certain extent non English speaking. So we are looking to deliver training in, in other languages other than English and the vision really simple, a world where disputes are resolved promptly, effectively and creatively. And you'll see there there's a mission we're actually a royal charter. organisation, so our and the charity so our our mission is sort of embedded in our on our royal charter, but you can see the all the things that you would expect a membership and global bodies such as ourselves to be concentrating on and you'll see this also reflected in our strategy when I came into it Post last last year, we took the opportunities to work with board members with our branches to look at our strategy, and to think about how do we take the organisation forward for the next few years. And, and these are our new strategic aims, which I hope resonate with you all. So the first being to globally promote the constructive resolution of disputes. So this means really raising the profile of ADR, obviously, including mediation. So where I think traditionally, as Lewis said, we have been associated more with international arbitration, there's a real emphasis now on all forms of, you know, what we've traditionally termed as alternative dispute resolution, which includes mediation. And I think in in that we can talk a little bit about some of the areas where we are focusing around promoting and raising the profile of ADR. The second aim there is to be a global and inclusive, thought leader. And certainly, I think both Isabel and Lewis will will touch on some of the work that we're doing in that regard. And the third is, is around creating and developing an inclusive global community of diverse dispute resolvers. And that's bringing people across the world or our members together, to share knowledge, to share experiences to network, and to effectively work together. And there's a big emphasis there on equality, diversity and inclusion, which I will also touch on.

 

So just talking a little bit about strategic a number one promotion, you know, we are looking to sort of raise the profile of ADR, you know, particularly the value that it brings to society in the economy. We're hoping to do some research in that regard, later, later this year and into into next, we're also keen to differentiate CR members. Because if you join CR, you've made a commitment to training and to developing your expertise. But also you're signing up to a set of professional standards and ethical rules, which give assurance to the people who may engage you surround your your area of practice. And that's certainly a big differentiator for many of our members who are operating globally, we've also got a commitment for our charitable objectives to support and train kind of non members. So that's, that's about raising the profile. So that's about working with business, you know, we were working with sort of SMEs with with people who perhaps don't want to go on and have a professional career in ADR, but to familiarise them with the, with the processes so that in the event that they do have disputes, they will think about using alternative methods rather than the traditional view of the of the going to go into court. And I think working collaboratively with other organisations is also one of our objectives. And we are doing that increasingly, around the world. And that might be training organisations, or it might be other professional bodies. But certainly, we're creating a sort of a host of partnership opportunities, as part of this aim to, to raise the profile of ADR. We, and I'm sure Lewis will talk more about this, but we, we in with our policy work, we also seek to influence we're looking to create this home for dispute resolution, which means, you know, as we've talked about raising raising the profile, but also working effectively with with governments and other key stakeholders to shape dispute resolution across the world, which includes where there are opportunities to either mandate or certainly introduce different forms of dispute resolution, we work we work to do that. And I think we've also as a charity, but also the professional body use opportunities to promote and and where we can reinforce the rule of law and enable access to justice. And I think there's an increasing conversation about using ADR to enable active access to justice, particularly a time when we know that in many countries, the court system is is struggling as a consequence of the of the pandemic and indeed otherwise. So there's a focus with with our thought leadership work around use of technology and and that's me, I suspect that that's a passion certainly All of us, but I suspect that Isabel will touch on that, insofar as that can relate to, to mediation. And we also do quite a lot of horizon scanning. So the idea being that if we're seeing trends around the world, we can inform members so that they can be on the front foot in relation to their practice, and how they might respond to that, as opposed to sort of hearing about it, you know, later later on. So it enables them both form and technology perspective, but also perhaps, policy issues. And we've touched on professional standards, in terms of creating a global community, what we're really looking to achieve there is around supporting people with their career progression, irrespective of where they might be with it. And that's really, I suppose, related to the career progression in ADR. So we appreciate that many people will come into perhaps, you know, want to be mediators, or indeed, arbitrators, you know, what, what once they've already had, perhaps a career in legal practice, or surveying or architecture, or whatever else it may be. And we're looking to support them through that, that that journey, and growing, growing, our membership is key, we're doing a lot of work to reach out to our membership to really sort of understand what it is that they want and need from us. So we're creating, for example, an insight panel where you can join and you can feed back, if we have ideas, we can come to you and say, do you think this is a good idea or not, because we're really keen for the organisation to be so driven and informed by its members, so that, you know, we are actually responding to those needs,

 

we will also supporting our branches, to develop networks to develop their local expertise. So indeed, if you obviously many of the people today will be probably UK based, but you know, opportunities to speak to other practitioners around the world, and create that that branch network and to enable people to join in with discussions that are perhaps happening in different jurisdictions, which may be relevant is is is obviously something that we're keen to promote, and we have regular discussions going on globally, with, with our branches with those every every quarter in which we're sharing information on the ground. And, and they're, you know, and obviously, sharing some of the information that we're seeing, you know, coming into the into the centre, I'm really keen that we we highlight the contribution that our members are making as part of our our strategic approach. And there's a real emphasis on everything we do, we're seeking to embed equality, diversity, and inclusion, and that's really sort of enabling people to join the the ADR profession, irrespective of their backgrounds. And, you know, we've got a number of programmes to support that including a mentor, a mentoring programme that we're rolling out later, when it's actually actually early June. So, if you if you undertake our training and join you, you do get some posts, phenomenal letters after your name, which is sort of recognition of the of the training that you've you've done and the commitment that you've made to improving your expertise, but also, it's a recognition of the fact that you have signed up to our professional standards and rules. And those those letters are recognised around the world. You know, as a side, there has been, perhaps a focus on international arbitration, but we're keen that they are increasingly recognised for other forms of dispute dispute alternative dispute resolution. So I'm, I'm happy now to, to sort of be Passover to Louis, I'll just stop sharing my, my screen, but perhaps before I'm paying that would there's opportunities for questions at the end, but if there's anything that came out of my presentation that anybody wanted to ask about before I hand over to Louis and really happy to take any any, any sort of brief questions.

 

Yeah, if anybody's anybody got a question, you want to put your hand up and we can bring him in? Has anybody got their hand up, Martin? I can't see all the people here. Okay, well, let's say that to the end. Okay. Thank you, Catherine. When we go over to you.

 

Excellent. Thanks, everybody. I'm just about to, to share my screen so just bear with me a moment. Can everybody see those slides

 

Yep. Okay, I'll just see if I can share these as well fully. Just be one second, I think the polls just just popped up, which is

 

there we are. Excellent. I hope everyone can see that. So yeah, thank you very much, Catherine. And I think I don't want to take too much of everybody's time at this point, because I know that you'll all be very keen to hear from from Isabel has had a mediation, specifically about our mediation strategy. But what I did want to do was just talk through some of it just just flesh out a bit about what Catherine said about our role as a professional body. specifically talk about the role of policy and external affairs, in delivering that, and then talk about some of the specific initiatives that we've undertaken that will be of interest to you as mediators that illustrates what that actually looks like in practice. So as Catherine said, earlier, we are we are a charity, and we're a royal chartered body, we're bound by the terms of that Royal Charter. And the purpose in that Royal Charter is to promote and facilitate worldwide, the determination of disputes by arbitration and alternative means of private dispute resolution, over the resolution by the court. Now, this is really front and centre of my mind, in terms in terms of the work that I do work in with governments, both in the UK and also around the world. It really is about trying to embed the use of of arbitration and mediation right across the piece. Whether that is through direct regulation, whether it's through the incorporation of ADR in legislation, or whether it's through cultural changes, and actually trying to reflect some of that that kind of societal and attitudinal shift, so that people are more willing to use ADR that involves working with potential parties, so potential end users, and also through our, through our training and influencing, equipping them with the skills that they need. So there's really a great deal of interplay between our policy influencing work and our role as an accrediting and, and training body. Just on the point of training and accreditation. I didn't mention in my introduction, that I recently became a cir accredited mediator. Last year, I undertook the the online module one mediation course, which is the first time that this had been being carried out online as part of our reaction to the pandemic. And that that really is about providing confidence to the market, that the people who have been accredited as mediators have been through a rigorous and comprehensive training programme. That's very much skills, but skills based, it's practically based, you have to undertake and demonstrate your skills as a mediator. And that that's been rigorously, rigorously assessed by very experienced professionals as well. So coming back to our role as a policy body, we do seek to influence policy as the voice of all forms of alternative dispute resolution, we are bound to act in the public interest, I think this is really key, we're not a trade body. Whilst I actually think there's a real symbiosis between it when it works properly, there's a symbiosis between the interests of our members and the interests of the wider society. But we are not a trade body. In that sense. We're not we're certainly not a lobbying body. And we have to have a broad presence and undertake a great deal of thought leadership to show that we're really at the cutting edge of thinking in the field.

 

In terms of practically what we do to do that, I won't spend too long on this because caffeine is as as talked about it already, but it's very much about horizon scanning, influencing. We're always looking to work in partnership where we got common interests, and that's as true of mediation as in any other field and to provide advice and support to our members to help them navigate the policy landscape and understand to changes. And this is very much on a, I really want to emphasise the global dimension to this we will always look at jurisdictions around the world to see best practice and what may be happening there. So for instance will be relevant here is looking at the the uptake of mandatory mediation in India, for example, and in other jurisdictions and what lessons might be drawn from that, and how that might influence our policy positioning. In terms of some of the practical work that we've undertaken recently, there's some of you may be familiar with. It already came up briefly in conversation earlier. We are the Secretariat to the all party parliamentary group for alternative dispute resolution, chaired by john Hill. Last year, we released a report on behalf of the A bbg, which was really about comparing Singapore in the UK as centres for dispute resolution. And a whole chapter of that report was dedicated to the role of mediation and how that can be be better promoted. I know that the the members of the APB g particularly john howlers share a very enthusiastic about the potential of mediation to be used, but they also feel that it is underutilised, particularly by government at present and government and the judiciary. And so their recommendations in that report and the report can be found on the website for those who haven't seen it yet. But there were three key recommendations relevant there. The first was that the UK should sign up to the Singapore mediation convention. Now that recommendation was was not only about the practical benefits of the convention in boosting, enforceability, and, and creating an a more more coherent platform for mediation worldwide. It was also fundamentally about trying to generate some real momentum behind mediation and normalise that, on the world stage as a form of dispute resolution. Certainly Cinderella men in the chief justice in Singapore is a real evangelist for the role that mediation can can play. And feels that it really is one of the dispute mechanisms of the future that there's a real appetite in the market to take this on. Another element of the the APG report's recommendations was about encouraging it greater training of mediators and really training a wider and more diverse pool of mediators. Now, I think that the key here was that that training had to be rigorous and accredited so that the market could have real confidence that, that mediators have the necessary skills, and that that's underpinned by accreditation. Obviously, there are different forms of that. In terms of our response to the report, we feel very strongly and I know that, Isabel were talking about this during her section, but we, it's really the core of our purpose to maintain the value of cir accreditation across all all disciplines. And mediation is no different. The final element of the Singapore, Singapore report's recommendations in relation to mediation was about equipping the judiciary, with the skills and infrastructure that's needed to promote mediation as an integral part of the dispute resolution process. And so when necessary to unburden the courts of the huge caseload that they're dealing with divert appropriate cases towards mediation. And making sure that the judiciary had the understanding of the process, so that they were able to do that. Within. within the UK, we're always advocating greater use of mediation and the the ABB g report is is a good platform for that. Over elements of the ABB g report talked about access to justice for for business and meeting the needs of business, particularly SMEs. And one of the the, one of our areas of emphasis at the moment is making sure that there is a really wide range of options open to end users, particularly SMEs and that they see

 

mediation as part of that toolkit part of that suite of options that they can access. We've seen, I think in even in the course of the last year. Not only The mediation bit for instance, in in adjudication with the low value, adjudication model adjudication procedure for the CIC, specifically targeting SMEs and the cmcs fixed fee mediation scheme, which I think looking ahead could be quite quite an important part of that, in terms of improving the routes that SMEs can go down. I know that one of the themes of our discussion today was was complementarity. So just before I hand over to to Isabel, I wanted to talk a bit about our role in developing professional practice guidelines, and particularly where that has implications for mediation. So complementarity, I think has to be at the heart of our role as a as a professional body. As I say, we do cover all forms of dispute resolution. And one of the things that we're really focusing on as we develop our strategy going ahead, are the links between those different forms of dispute resolution. So really trying to break down some of the the arbitrary distinctions between them, acknowledging where there are, of course differences and where some of the challenges in the interplay between them may may arise, but really encouraging cross cross discipline, understanding, and interplay so that professionals can really draw on a whole toolkit of different skills. a core part? Well, a core illustration of this would be the the mediation and arbitration guideline, which was in its initial form was actually developed in 2011. And it will shortly that it's been revised and will shortly be be issued. Now, the real focus of this this guideline is is to demonstrate how mediation can be used at all stages of the arbitration process and to really advise on the benefits of that. And also some of the considerations that need to be taken into account. So for instance, if an arbitrator is going to then act as the mediator, the guideline doesn't actually take a position specifically on on whether that is advisable It is very much left up to the the autonomy of the parties involved. However, it does highlight some of the considerations that need to be taken into account to ensure that that can be a credible and robust if that is how things proceed. It, it seeks to avoid any misleading shorthand so it isn't another guideline on ARB, med ARB, or med ARB, med or med ARB or ARB med, it's really far more holistic than that and tries to delve into its principles based and is looking at how mediation can be used right across the dispute journey. So from pre dispute to the commencement of proceedings to post arbitration mediation, where that might be relevant. In terms of the audience, it's primarily practising arbitrators, but seeking to equip them with the tools that they need to to understand how they can deploy mediation effectively. And it's as I say, it's to foster a greater understanding of how it can be used, and to highlight some of the potential pitfalls and concerns that may arise through that process. We also have a suite of mediation practice guidelines with the current suite is obviously now goes back quite a long way. You look to 2007. And so we are,

 

we're very conscious that they need to be updated, and in some cases, completely overhauled. We are not in a position where we're looking to simply revise and update the existing suite of guidelines in this area, we want to take almost a blank sheet of paper approach and look where any of the gaps might be a lot has changed since 2007. Indeed, a lot has changed in the last 18 months. So we really want to make sure that that is captured within the professional practice guidelines, as I've illustrated with the mediation and arbitration guidelines about giving pragmatic tools to practitioners. It is it really is across all of our guidelines, and again, you can find them on our website that focuses very much on practical, usable, tangible tools that people can use. And actually use so they're not sort of long winded academic screeds. It really tries to get into the nuts and bolts of what a practitioner needs in the course of their work. And we really want our data mediation guidelines to fulfil that role. As I say, We're about to commence that process. So input and suggestions are very welcome. I think our practice guidelines are really, at the heart of our our purpose as a as an organisation. It covers so many of those strategic games that Catherine referred to, in her presentation earlier about supporting our members, and providing cutting edge insights. Just before I hand over to Isabel, I know. And Michael, introduced earlier that I am also I oversee the dispute appointment service at the Institute. And as part of my role, you may have some questions later on. Perhaps after after Isabelle has spoken, I'd be happy to answer some of those. We do have a presidential panel of mediators, as an appointing body mediation appointments at the moment, and not a big, big part of what we do. We are looking to raise our profile. And that's something as a as a body for mediators, and hopefully is an appointing body for mediation as well in the course of that, and that's something Isabel will talk about. But details of of our presidential panel can be found online. It's open to, to shell fellows to to apply for a panel appointment certificate to join that. And we're also looking at our role as a named body under the CMC, fixed fee, mediation scheme, which I think was a was a really great initiative, and how that can fit as part of those ambitions as well. So I'd be very happy to take any questions, and I am conscious that you will be eager to hear from from Isabel so I don't want to take up too much time. I would encourage perhaps to hear from Isabel First of all, and then take questions at the end. But if anyone was eager to ask me anything now be happy to answer it.

 

Okay, thanks. Thanks, Louis. Has anybody got any burning questions about it? Please put your hand up. Roger.

 

Hi, low. Thank you very much for that. Very, very interesting to hear that you're thinking of raising your profile now on the mediation side? I've been on the panel for for several years, and I've worked with several of your predecessors. And the greatest challenge to me as a mediator looking at mediation for your profile, of course, is the name. And from all the experience I've had I see, the people don't look at the cir as a destination for mediation because they don't know it does mediation.

 

I think that's that's a reasonable point, Roger, I think as I as I mentioned in the introduction as well. The is ci ARB and one of the reasons why you'll note that I refer to this as cir, rather than the Chartered Institute of arbitrators in long form, is because I really want to emphasise that we do cover all of those different areas. It's similar for for adjudication. I think, you know, clearly we have the heritage of this name, I think the onus is really on us to to promote our role as a home for all forms of dispute resolution to the market. And I think that's that's really, really key. And that's something that that is about we'll be talking about as well. And I know that when he had a question as well about diversity, go for it. Yeah, go for it. Go for thank. Thanks, Michael. Thanks for that question. Winning I think one of the big strategic games is to promote diversity and inclusion across all of our operations within within the Institute, our panels are no different to that. We are in the process of assessing exactly across different criteria and across different dimensions what the diversity of our panels are I think to be frank, it isn't where we would like it to be at the moment. And so we recognise that that is something that needs to be addressed in terms of hard data on that one of the issues that we have is that we don't have the kind of granular data on on the diversity of our panels not only for, for mediation, but right across the piece. And so I think you can't address a problem until you've fully identified it and properly clarified what that is. It's certainly something that's right at the core of our our strategic aims, as a body I think, not only as it's just a strategic game in itself, but it's something that underpins everything that we do. I think it's it really needs to be effective. It needs to be something that's, that's incorporated across everything that we do. And I think I'm reminded here about actually the this is in the context of, of arbitration, but recently the the whitened case international arbitration survey looked at how do you promote diversity in in dispute resolution? And I think the very high on the list of responses was the role of appointing bodies and institutions in providing those opportunities. And I think that's, that's certainly true for mediation as well.

 

Thanks, Louis. So we move on to Isabel. Time is racing on Would that be okay?

 

Yes, certainly, Mike, I know that there are a couple of other questions, but I think if we if we can pick those up, I'm eager that you won't be left out if you will pick those up afterwards. Yeah. Okay.

 

Well, yeah, if you can, you can maybe have a look at them and see what you want. So maybe pass it on to Isabel Isabel, over to you.

 

And so I'm aware there's a couple of hands up, but I'm very aware that I know that one or two people have already told me that they have to leave at 11 you will just go to run and pick up questions at the end. So my first the first thing I want to do is to ask all you guys a question and I'm sure you're all familiar with zoom chat function. So if you haven't hover over the bottom and click on the chat button so that you can see the chat going on the right hand side of your screen. And what I'd like you to do in there is just to write yes or no in the chat and my question is do you know what roof slate is? Do you know what roof slate is? Just a yes or no? What? roof slate? I'm getting quite a lot of yeses here wanted to knows. I think the yeses have it so far. Late. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think they the SS have it. So here's a question to all of those who answered Yes. Do you know what now we're free to go? Listen quite carefully here. What random course diminishing slate is random cause diminishing slating?

 

I'm getting some nose with quite a lot of booze and then one or two arms. But I have got a yes. Somebody has given a yes. So if anybody who said yes. then feel free to write a one sentence explanation of what it is there's a challenge for you. And I'm looking forward to to any answer to that. So nice little poll. Do you know what a cigarette is? a cigarette? Yes or no? Definitely not getting any nose on that one. Okay, so here's the next question. Do you know which local cigarette brands would be safe to put on a cafe table in Westminister in the late 90s or early noughties? Please name the brands? If you do otherwise say no.