Abraham Lincoln wisely counselled: “Discourage litigation, persuade your neighbours to compromise whenever they can.”
Even in the Nineteenth Century there was a perception that the nominal winner in a dispute is often the real loser in time and expense. This was also something John Sturrock learned in the 1990s when training in negotiation at Harvard University under Dr Roger Fisher, the co-author of the best-selling book Getting to Yes.
Now chief executive and senior mediator at Edinburgh-based Core Solutions Group, which he founded, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh, he had been a solicitor, advocate and Queen’s Counsel when his eyes were opened to this alternative way of addressing disputes and conflict.
“I’d enjoyed the adversarial world of which I was a part but discovered people with apparently intractable disputes could find a way to collaborate and resolve them.
“I decided I wanted to try to make a real difference through promoting mediation as a service and providing training in conflict management, negotiation and mediation in Scotland where there was virtually no mediation in commercial matters at all,” he says.
That led to the founding of Core Solutions Group and a career as a mediator, facilitator, conflict specialist and coach.
He has mediated in government, commerce, industry, the professions, sport, the public sector, senior management and other sensitive and complex matters.
“I am frequently involved in very complex disputes where people have been in the courts for months or years and face continued impasse in negotiation and court processes involving costs that often run into hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of pounds.
That is an inefficient use of resources and in many cases leads to the breakdown of commercial, professional and personal relationships,” he says. Mediation, he adds, is not a panacea. “Problem solving is hard work and minimal satisfaction may be the initial benchmark but very rarely are people disappointed and in 85% to 90% of the cases people will find a solution to their problem.” This leads to positive client feedback and recommendations of Core’s specialised service.
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There is, Prof Sturrock concedes, a natural combative instinct that has traditionally led intothe courtroom and the uptake of mediation in Scotland has thus far been behind the curve established in countries such as the US.
“There’s still a tendency for some to resort to aggressive negotiation or litigation – often because of a reluctance to appear weak or lose face,” he says. “And that remains an issue for some people. But there is also an increasing willingness to work with the grain rather than against it and more people are coming to us in order to achieve that.”
He also reports a growing acceptance of mediation in the wider legal arena – something attested to by David Morgan, a partner at Burness Paull LLP, who says: “Mediation is now a vital tool in our employment lawyers’ toolkit. I can think of few cases in my practice for which we would not consider mediation to resolve a workplace dispute.” Morgan “turned a corner in 2008” when he underwent training in mediation skills with Core Solutions.
Jim Cormack QC, a partner at Pinsent Masons LLP agrees, saying there are two key advantages to mediation: “First, it allows the parties to exchange information in a confidential and secure context and second it gives parties the opportunity to explore creative options for resolving their dispute or difference which goes far beyond what a court or tribunal has the power to order.”
John Sturrock, who has mediated in hundreds of disputes in Scotland and elsewhere is optimistic about what the next five to ten years may hold for Core as a business and mediation as a whole.
“Mediation is what I’ve committed my life to for the past 20 years or so – and it has been a remarkable and rewarding journey,” he says.
To learn more about Core Solutions please visit www.core-solutions.com
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