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 A new organisation dedicated to the interests and needs of mediation advocates launched in London last November. The Standing Conference of Mediation Advocates (SCMA) aims 'to end horror stories about technically poor lawyering and mediation advocates who think their job is to persuade the mediator of the legal merits of their case.'
Convenor of the group, barrister Andrew Goodman, said the group will 'set a quality threshold for a new market in specialist representation.'
The organisation, whose patron is Lord Falconer PC QC, intends to build on the skills and experiences of mediators to generate greater awareness of the differences between advocacy at mediation and before the courts. Goodman, author and editor of over 30 books, including Mediation Advocacy, says mediation can be an enormous jolt to lawyers' professional psyche: 'Lawyers are trained to create and defend interests,' he says. 'Therefore the ideological movement from adjudication to mediation as a problem solving exercise is particularly difficult for the lawyer.'
'In mediation, he continued, 'a lawyer's role can range from informer to adviser, translator, ally, negotiator, friendly peacemaker. At the same time you might have to act as a judge of the offers made, and eventually the settlement; you might have to push the reluctant client for his own good, then act as a healer providing consolation for the client's reduced expectations,' he said.
Starting at Oxford at the offices of Blake Lapthorn Resolve on 26 February, the group will roll out a programme of seminars in 2008 in Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham, Exeter and Norwich. Aspects of advocacy covered will include when and why to advance mediation; how to resist a mediation offer without attracting a potential costs sanction; how to choose the right mediator and venue; how to engage the mediator before the appointment; how to prepare a written statement of case; openings; deciding who should attend and why; devising a negotiating position and strategy, how to find wider interests; and how to identify workable solutions.
The group is also concerned to refocus interests more broadly: 'The difficulty is that the market place is and continues to be mediator-centric,' Goodman believes. 'At whatever pace the mediation industry continues to grow, all of the main players and the Ministry of Justice focus their attention almost exclusively on the needs of the mediators: training, standards, ethics, regulation and distribution of work are all the province of mediator training organisations,' he continued.
'Very little attention has yet been paid to the standards and techniques of those who appear to represent parties at mediation appointments, either in terms of safeguarding the consumer or looking at what could be an entirely distinctive market for practitioners. Those who currently practise by using the term 'mediation advocate' are either lawyers in mainstream dispute resolution practice or those who are already trained mediators, and usually both.'
Further details are available at www.mediationadvocates.org.uk. Andrew Goodman is contactable at
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