1 - 5 October 2007: ADR Group will attend the Lord Mayor of London's Offical Trade Visit to South Africa as a business delegate member. The visit is organised through the IFSL (International Financial Services, London) which is a private sector organisation with 30 years experience of successfully promoting the UK-based financial services industry throughout the world.

The process of mediation is already well established in South Africa with a number of organistions playing a valuable role in raising the overall level of awareness of the process and their respective services. The biggest advances appear to have been made in the fields of labour relations and divorce mediation involving children. Various national schemes are in place and compulsory mediation is required in certain instances.

However, in the context of commercial mediation, there does not seem to be the same level of activity. Commercial arbitration, on both the domestic and international levels, still appears to be the preferred route for the resolution of commerical disputes. Nevertheles, there does appear to be a real interest and opportunity for commercial mediation to be developed to the same level of acceptance as commercial arbitration and this is the challenge facing all those involved in dispute resolution in South Africa.

ADR Group is seeking to assist in the creation of a more sustainable commerical mediation culture in South Africa.

From the 1 - 5 October 2007, ADR Group will be presenting a Seminar Series on Commerical Mediation which will explore some of the issues facing the legal and business communities in making greater use of commercial mediation:

• Review current and emerging issues in commerical mediation
• Develop strategies to overcome institutional resistance to ADR
• Assess the value of mediation for clients and business
• Make money from mediation: the UK experience
• Create and market professional mediation services
• Build a sustainable ADR infrastructure in South Africa

As a business delegate member of the official Lord Mayor's visit, ADR Group will also be holding meetings with key stakeholders in Government and the financial services industry to discuss the effective integration and implementation of dispute avoidance and dispute management processes. The key to the successful resolution of any financial or commercial dispute rests with decision makers with suitable authority and their legal advisers, working together a team.

LOOKING AHEAD

1. ADR Group will also be holding a series of meetings with a number of well established mediation and arbitration providers in South Africa. ADR Group is not setting itself up in competition with them. ADR Group's primary goal is to explore ways in which we work with these organisations to cooperate in:

• Creating a higher level of public awareness and confidence
• Providing professional training and mentoring schemes
• Provision of ongoing professional development
• Developing a network of business clients serviced by specific panels
• Woking with the DoJ & CD, courts and judiciary in the implementation of a national mediation scheme

2. In light of our British experience and developments in the EU, we will be inviting delegates at the seminars to consider whether there is merit in the idea of establishing:

• a specialist high level panel of South African International Commercial Mediators
• a country-wide attorneys firm in-house Professional Regional Mediation Network providing a real alternative to litigation in the lower courts for contractual and other commerical disputes

Participants at the forthcoming seminars will be asked to share their views and experiences of many aspects of mediation in South Africa and their vision for the way ahead. These will be collated and embodied in an article to be submitted for publication in De Rebus.

The following are a selection of leading organisations committed to the further development of mediation in South Africa:

www.iodsa.co.za
www.mediation.com
www.saam.org.za
www.tokiso.com
www.famac.co.za
www.arbitration.co.za

The presenters at each seminar will be:

Michael Lind
Managing Director, ADR Group, London

Jonathan Lloyd-Jones
Senior Partner, Blake Lapthorn Tarlo Lyons, London

John Fletcher
Project Director, ADR Group, London

Together with a panel of mediation representatives from the various South African based mediation organisations.

Press Release: ADR Group to Attend Lord Mayor of London's Official Trade Visit to South Africa