Mediation Qualifications and Awards

1. After being a Civil Mediation Council Registered Mediator for both Civil/Commercial and Workplace mediations, Emma was awarded Fellowship of the Civil Mediation Council in October 2021, in recognition of her ‘extensive mediation experience’. She qualified as a mediator in 2011 and has been practicing mediation ever since.

2. Emma is currently listed as a Legal 500 Leading Mediator.

3. Emma became an International Mediation Advocate in 2015 and trained in Community Mediation in 2016.

4. Whilst acting as Head of the UCLan Centre for Mediation, she received:

• • the Award for Outstanding New Mediation Programme from The International Academy of Dispute Resolution in 2015 in recognition of her student team excelling in their first year of entering this competition
• • the Golden Roses (UCLan student-nominated) Real World Learning Award for providing students with real life experience in mediation in 2014 and 2015. She founded the UCLan Mediation Clinic which, in 2016, was shortlisted for University Service of the Year
• • the highly commended ‘Rising Star’ National Award from the Professional Mediator’s Association in 2015. This award was for mediation initiatives in which she ‘demonstrated excellence.’

5. In recognition of her expertise, Emma has been awarded Mediation Expert of the UK of 2020, 2021 and 2022 by the Global Advisory Experts and Best Mediation Trainer of the Year in the UK from the Corporate INTL Global Awards in 2021.

6. She was listed in the prestigious Legal 500 as a Leading Mediator in 2022.

7. Emma was shortlisted as Best Newcomer and Best Trainer in mediation in the UK National Mediation Awards 2020 and as Workplace Mediation of the Year in 2022.

8. At the National Mediation Awards 2022 held at the House of Commons, Emma was nominated as Civil and Commercial Mediator of the Year, Shortlisted as Workplace Mediator of the Year and won Mediation Trainer of the Year 2022/23.

Mediation Training

Emma joined the Association of Mediation Assessors, Trainers and Instructors (AMATI) by invitation in 2014 and sat on the expert panel at their international conference in 2015.

Emma founded the UCLan Centre for Mediation in 2014. As part of this, she created a Training School in Mediation for which she wrote the Civil and Commercial Training Course. This gained accreditation by the Civil Mediation Council (“CMC”) and was assessed as ‘excellent’ by the Head of the Academic Committee of the CMC.

Emma was repeatedly commended by delegates for her mediation training at UCLan. Participants travelled from around the world to attend her courses. The course was adopted by the UCLan Cyprus and Mauritius campuses which she implemented. 

She extended her skill to providing professional skills and development courses for lawyers, mediators and those representing clients in a mediation.

Emma wrote and delivered modules regarding mediation across all three years of the law degree. She also extended her course to postgraduate masters students for them to study International Civil and Commercial Mediation.

Emma trained and prepared students for national mediation competitions with considerable success:

• • In 2014, after her team won the northern semi-final, her students won 2nd Best Mediator, 3rd Best Mediator and Most Intuitive Mediator.
• • In 2015, her team won the northern semi-final and at the finals won Best Round and Best Acted Participant.
• • In 2016, Emma’s team won Best Team, Best Individual Mediator and Best Acted Participant.
• • In 2017, her students won 2nd and 3rd Best Teams and 2nd Best Acted Participant.
• • In 2019 4th Best scored team 20 Emma also trained and prepared students for international mediation competitions, again with considerable success:
• • In 2015, Emma received the Award for Outstanding New Mediation Programme. Her team made the Semi-Finals and one student achieved 4th Best Individual Mediator.
• • In 2016 and 2017, students who were trained by Emma achieved 1st place for Best Individual Mediator.
• • In 2019, her team were the only European team to reach the Finals where they were awarded 4th Best Team.

Since leaving UCLan, Emma has assisted in the running of the UCLan course in Cyprus. She also has her own Civil and Commercial training course approved by the Civil Mediation Council and International Mediation Institute. Other courses that she delivers include the Workplace Mediation Conversion Course and CPD for Mediators. She also delivers other professional short courses.

Currently...

Emma is now a full-time mediator and mediation trainer on her own courses.

Emma is the Director/Founder of Essential Mediation Solutions, which provides Civil/Commercial and Workplace Mediation Services and accredited mediation training programmes.

Emma is married to a Partner at Keoghs and has a son and daughter, between whom she regularly mediates

Mediation Conferences and Publications

From 2011, Emma has researched mediation issues across many areas and has written several publications, including an academic piece for a special edition of the Journal of Medical Law and Ethics, a collaborative piece for a national mediation journal and a book review on a mediation textbook.

She has also presented many papers on mediation at national conferences including The National Conference of Learning from Conflict in 2015 and the Association of Law Teachers’ Annual Conference in 2016.

Emma organised, hosted and convened the national conference ‘The Future of Workplace Mediation in HEFE’ in 2015 which was attended by University HR professionals from all over the country.

In March 2018, Emma organised, hosted and convened a National Conference entitled ‘Healthcare Disputes: Is Mediation the Best Medicine’. The conference was so successful that the peer reviewed Journal of Medical Law and Ethics published the presentations from the late Paul Randolph (then Chair of the CMC Academic Committee, renowned mediator and trainer, barrister), Tony Allen (eminent CEDR mediator), Dr Kartina Choong (Reader in Medical Law and Ethics, mediator, author of multiple peer-reviewed academic publications) and the keynote speaker Michael Redfern KC in a special edition of the Journal in December 2018, which was very well received.

Emma was invited to Chair the international AMATI two day conference online in September 2020 and February 2021.

Emma has presented on mediation at professional networking events, as a guest speaker for the NW Mediation Steering Group for HEFE Mediation and on BBC Radio in 2019

Professional Experience

Emma gained a 2:1 degree in Law With French Law at the University of Reading. Her third year was spent at Paris X University where she obtained a 2:1 Diploma in French Legal Studies.

Emma secured a training contract with Davies Arnold Cooper (now DAC Beachcroft) and on qualifying as a solicitor in 2000 was inducted into their Commercial Dispute Resolution Department, working mainly for Defendant insurers. She moved to Mace & Jones (now Weightmans) in their Commercial Dispute Resolution Department. As a commercial litigator, Emma mediated from a Defendant lawyer’s perspective. Her experience quickly led her to see the benefits of mediation over litigation.

Emma developed an interest in public speaking about the benefits of mediation to such an extent that she changed course in her career and became a Law Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire (“UCLan”) in 2004, where she rose to Reader in 2017.

Emma lectured on a variety of undergraduate subjects including contract and tort. She also taught, at postgraduate level, Litigation with Advocacy and Business Law and Practice on the Legal Practice Course.

In 2011, she put a paper to her Head of Law School outlining the potential of mediation which was enthusiastically received and led to Emma qualifying as a mediator the same year.

Emma was awarded a Readership in Mediation in 2017, in recognition of her innovation, expertise and experience in mediation.  

Recent

Testimonials

The mediation “was a good opportunity to have discussions in a safe environment” Emma was “empathetic and practical”

The mediation was “well worth it” – “It is one of the best training courses I have ever attended. Emma was very engaging and had a good sense of keeping the class lively

“The Course exceeded my expectations in many ways. I would recommend the course to anyone. Great Teaching’’