Henry Brown

Professional Background

Admitted as a solicitor in South Africa (1962) and England (1975), he was a partner and is currently a consultant with the City of London law firm, Penningtons. He undertook commercial work, litigation and arbitration (including domestic and international construction disputes) for over 25 years and was formerly head of his firm’s intellectual property unit.

He is a Member of PIM (the Panel of Independent Mediators: www.mediatorspanel.co.uk), an accredited mediator with CEDR (the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) and the Law Society’s commercial mediation panel, and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb). He is on the International Panel of Distinguished Neutrals of New York’s CPR International Institute of Conflict Prevention & Resolution.

He was the first Director of Mediation of Resolution (formerly the Solicitors Family Law Association) and is co-founder and Vice-President of the Family Mediators Association.

Mediation Experience

He is an experienced mediator who has consistently appeared as a commercial mediation specialist in Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession and is listed in Legal Experts published by Legal Business/Legal 500. As both a specialist mediator in intellectual property (IP) disputes and business relationship breakdown (including shareholder and partnership disputes) and a generalist mediator, he mediates across a wide range of commercial and civil disputes. He also mediated for over 15 years in family and inter-personal disputes.

Training and Writing

After co-establishing England’s first mediation pilot scheme in 1986, he worked in 1989 with Endispute in training mediators for the construction industry in Hong Kong. He was a member of CEDR’s initial training faculty, co-established the practice and training programmes of both the Family Mediators Association’s and Resolution. He has created and run mediation courses and workshops in the UK, Hong Kong, Denmark and South Africa. He has acted as consultant to the Law Society, the City Disputes Panel, and the National Health Service Litigation Authority.

Author of the Law Society's Report on civil and commercial ADR (1991) and co-author with Arthur Marriott QC of ADR Principles and Practice (Sweet & Maxwell: 1993 & 1999), he has also contributed extensively to other books and journals.

Personal

Interest in civil and family law reform in England. Also interested in emotional and psychological issues around the practice of law and mediation. Has a Certificate in the Fundamentals of Psychotherapy and Counselling.