HEATHER ALLEN MEMBER & ADVANCED TRAINING
Independent Commercial Mediator and Facilitator
• Heather Allen is featured as a leading mediator in Chambers Directory of the legal profession in the UK. She is a CEDR Solve registered mediator and is a member of the Core panel in Scotland. Heather is Head of the Training Faculty at CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution).
• Since 1995 Heather has mediated many types of dispute in areas including property, professional negligence, media, partnership, public sector, multi-party cases, professionals and their regulatory bodies, contractual claims across a broad spectrum of industries, personal injury, probate and complex employment disputes – many with an international element.
• Her mediation appointments are complemented by her wider business facilitator practice that spans nearly 20 years, providing leadership and management development for individuals, teams and groups, and conflict resolution services.
• Heather draws on her business experience gained in the oil industry, in advertising, publicity and marketing, and in running a small publishing company as managing editor. This hands-on experience combined with qualification as a barrister enables her to deal effectively with a wide range of commercial disputes. She has a problem-solving style aimed at helping the parties achieve a workable agreement. She applies a clear, direct, practical approach, not flinching from the tensions that so often accompany business difficulties.
• Comments from Chambers and parties about Heather’s mediation approach:
A gifted mediator; gets underneath a problem and sees all of its angles; Totally professional and objective; Focused on agreed outcomes; Picked up rapidly on points of difficulty; Strengths - listening, energy, calmness, maintenance of a secure, positive environment; Managed a very fair and open process; Patience and perseverance; Calm and confident - Inspired trust.
Additional comments from lawyers who have worked with her as an assistant include: Heather has tremendous drive and energy; Quickly got the respect of the parties; She seemed to me to be in control throughout; Heather played a difficult role with great discretion.
• One of Heather’s particular strengths is in dealing with power imbalance, perceived or real, and with overt inter-personal and intra-organisational conflict. She is skilled at working with interpreters and confident working cross-culturally, having worked abroad as a consultant and in a wide variety of organisations in the UK on equality and diversity policy implementation.
• Heather is well known as a mediator trainer and coach, and she also works regularly with the judiciary and other professionals in developing the wider use of mediation. Heather has worked internationally training and assessing mediators in other parts of Europe, Nigeria, Pakistan, and has run seminars in the USA; she has also worked with jurisdictions abroad that are planning to introduce mediation as part of their civil justice system.
• Heather is one of the five elected independent mediator members of the Civil Mediation Council of England and Wales.