Brian McKibbin LLB (Hons) Law LLM Computers and Law Qualified Solicitor (non-practicing) and law firm consultant Accredited Civil/Commercial and Workplace Mediator Associate (ACIArb) Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Mediation Qualifications and Awards 1. Brian is an accredited Mediator for Civil/Commercial and for Workplace mediations. He qualified as a mediator in 2012 and has been practising mediation ever since. 2. Brian set up his own Commercial Mediation panel GetMediation in 2013 and is the owner and one of the senior mediators available there. 3. GetMediation has most recently been awarded the Mediation Service of the Year Bristol 2020 prize in the Bristol Prestige Awards. Professional Experience 4. Brian gained a 2:1 degree in Law (LLB) at the University of Southampton. 5. Brian followed this with a Masters Degree in Computers and Law (LLM) with Distinction at Queen’s University, Belfast. 6. Brian passed his LPC at Guildford College of Law with Distinction. 7. Brian started his legal life at the “Magic Circle” firm Allen & Overy in the City where he specialised in advising corporate clients on commercial contracts. He then moved to the Midlands where he joined Lee Crowder (now Cobbetts LLP) - Birmingham’s oldest law firm. It was there that Brian got his early experience as a commercial litigator in the realm of Construction Litigation. It was seeing the time and costs of litigation in these large scale projects in close detail that put Brian on the path to seeing how mediation was a better way to resolve complex issues. 8. Brian was so convinced that mediation was the way forward that he decided to move into it full time. 9. Outside of his mediation work, Brian is a director of several companies, including not-for-profits, and understands the commercial imperatives of his clients. Mediation 10. Brian set up GetMediation as a panel of experienced senior mediators with a broad range of skills and specialisms in order to service a comprehensive variety of commercial disputes for clients across England and Wales. 11. Brian believes in cost-effective dispute resolution and insists that mediators on his panel are “adept at alleviating some of the particular personal animosity and bitterness which can tend to exacerbate the legal situation in commercial disputes, and pay particular attention to focus thoughts towards costs because the parties will often have a very uncompromising adversarial attitude towards each and every point at issue.” Current Position 12. Brian enjoys acting as a full-time mediator, mainly in commercial litigation disputes. 13. Brian is also the owner of GetMediation and heads up the panel of mediators there. 14. Brian is married to a lawyer and they both regularly mediate disputes, being passionate advocates of mediation as a preferred alternative to litigation. Mediation Experience 15. Brian has worked as a Mediator in civil and commercial mediations for eight years. He is widely known as a supreme “ideas generator" and this predilection to "think outside the box" informs his work as a mediator. 16. Brian specialises in commercial disputes of all kinds, and he brings many years' practical experience to bear with a kind ear, imparting dexterity and empathy to broker effective solutions. 17. Brian has acquired an excellent reputation for helping to resolve commercial disputes over an extensive range of legal disciplines and areas. Brian has been involved in the following by way of a small sample of examples: ● Multi-million pound commercial business relationship breakdown between two brothers with severe tensions arising from divergent strategic visions for managing the organisation. ● Seven figure Partnership dispute between siblings on the future direction and product development in jointly owned health care business. ● Buy out between former partners, who were in a relationship, in the leisure and beauty industry. ● Highly adversarial and antagonistic dispute between the major shareholders re the distribution of capital assets involving a national franchise business. ● Dispute between family members re loans and outstanding debts with major breakdowns of relationships. Brian’s Rating “Brian exudes a calm authority that allows him to be gently persuasive and persistent in helping a solution emerge.” "I’d like to extend sincere thanks to Brian for the outstanding way he conducted the Mediation. I really hope we’ll not have another issue like this but if we do, we’d certainly be very anxious to use Brian again. He’s an excellent Mediator." “I’m absolutely convinced were it not for your tact and skill we would never have found a way to an agreement.” “Brian really thinks outside the box to help the parties in mediation come up with new perspectives that they would never have seen for themselves.” “Brian is an obviously skilled operator and a really good ‘reality tester’”. .