Free Webinar – Ready to Mediate? All your questions answered

Garden Court Mediation marks the start of International Mediation Awareness Week (IMAW) 2025 with a special webinar designed to demystify the mediation process for practitioners, clients, and anyone curious about how mediation works in practice.

Whether you’re new to mediation or looking to sharpen your approach, this session will walk through the key stages and strategic considerations involved in a successful mediation. Our expert panel will cover:

• Preparing for mediation – what to consider beforehand, how to brief your client, and how to set realistic goals.

• Time management – practical tips for making the most of the day and avoiding common time traps.

• Confidentiality – understanding the legal and ethical framework that underpins the process.

• Issue narrowing – how to identify and focus on the key areas of dispute to move toward resolution.

• Enforcement of agreements – what happens after settlement and how to ensure outcomes are binding and enforceable.

Speakers

Kate Aubrey-Johnson, Barrister & Mediator, Garden Court Chambers
Parties have confidence in Kate as a facilitative and dynamic mediator. She has a high settlement rate and is regarded as patient and intuitive. She has a wealth of litigation experience and is able to deal with complex legal and factual issues. Kate believes that mediation allows for parties to reach creative resolutions and that the mediation process can offer meaningful and practical solutions for people in a dispute.

Kate is an active member of the wider mediation community, she is an accredited civil mediator, a SEND mediator for the award-winning KIDS SEND Mediation Service and she is an accredited community mediator. She has written widely on developments in mediation and is the author of Making Mediation Work For You (LAG, 2012).

Helen Curtis, Barrister and Mediator, Garden Court Chambers
Helen is a trained, experienced mediator with ‘excellent interpersonal skills’ and an ability to ‘keep the focus on coming to an agreement’.  She is calm and relaxed from the first point of contact with the parties and her constructive approach acknowledges the parties’ needs at the outset. Helen helps parties reach a resolution in cases that are commercially sensitive, complex and where disputes involve a high degree of strong emotion or hostility. She brings skills required in litigation namely energy, insight and stamina to effective use in the mediation process.

Marina Sergides, Barrister and Mediator, Garden Court Chambers
Marina is a barrister and CEDR accredited mediator with 18 years of wide-ranging civil and public law expertise. In her legal practice Marina is adept at dealing with negotiations in, but not limited to, disputes arising in housing, homelessness, disrepair, possession, community care, public law and civil actions. Marina is regularly instructed by the Official Solicitor. Marina also has experience in Inquest and Prison Law, working closely with bereaved families. While her legal experience makes Marina suitable for housing and public law claims, Marina’s mediation practice encompasses other areas where civil and commercial disputes arise.

Nativa Atreya, Barrister and Mediator, Garden Court Chambers
Navita advises on many issues within the spectrum of public law including damages claims arising out of unlawful detention and recognises the interplay between mediation and litigation. Navita’s experience as an Immigration Judge in the Asylum and Immigration chamber (First-tier tribunal) and Social Entitlement chamber (First-tier tribunal) demonstrates her intrinsic independence and neutrality. Additionally she capably manages legally complex proceedings and can be authoritative when needed. These skills are evident in Navita’s handling of the mediation process, particularly with parties who are unfamiliar with mediation. This includes the online mediation experience in which Navita has completed training using the zoom platform. Navita regards the facilitative process of mediation as extremely important in encouraging parties to reach settlement.

Margaret Doyle, Mediator, Garden Court Mediation
Margaret is a researcher, author and an experienced mediator, specialising in equalities issues and disputes between individuals and public bodies. She is accredited in special educational needs and disabilities mediation and in elder mediation. As a Visiting Research Fellow with the University of Essex School of Law, she combines her rights-based mediation practice with research that explores the role of mediation and ombuds in administrative justice. In 2022, Margaret became the first mediator in England to be certified as a specialist mediator in disputes involving older people.

Reserve your online ticket
If you have booked an online ticket, we will send joining details to all those who have signed up on the day of the event. If you have not received the link by 10 am on Monday 3 November, and it is not in your junk inbox, please email webinars@gclaw.co.uk.