Ian Walker – Director/ Solicitor/ Mediator/ Arbitrator

Opportunities for Mediators

We are very much a Mediation Service as well as being a Solicitors Practice.

Our team is also built around its team members.

We think that the best way to deliver family law services is through a niche practice and that clients will for obvious reasons be increasingly attracted to niche practices which have an obvious strength in depth within their team.

Over time we have expanded such that we have locations across the South West, Our business model and IT systems are such that it is viable for us to add additional locations if they can be easily serviced by incoming team members.

Our founder and Director Ian Walker has been a mediator (since 1996) for almost as long as he has been a solicitor (since 1992).

As a practice we are firmly committed to the values of Resolution and to sensible dispute resolution which includes mediation as an option.

As our practice has grown, it has grown much quicker on the legal side. We would like to add to our mediation team.

We hold a contract with the legal aid agency for publicly funded mediation.

Call our experienced Family Law Solicitors, Divorce Lawyers or Mediators now

CALL: 03339 390188
Or find your local expert:

Exeter (Head Office): 01392 248113 Barnstaple: 01271 827555 Bath: 01225 809399 Bristol: 0117 911 1215 Dorchester : 01305 896776 Frome: 01373 887331 Honiton: 01404 819098 Plymouth: 01752 545244 Plymouth (Plympton): 01752 545244 Poole: 01202 090063 Shaftesbury: 01747 898332 Taunton: 01823 429183 Torquay: 01803 895228 Wells: 01749 987446 Weston-Super-Mare: 01934 806223 Yeovil: 01935 804466

More mediation enquiries than we can deal with

We are conscious that we have more mediation enquiries than we are reasonably able to service. We would therefore very much like to add to our mediation team. These are both privately funded and legally aided mediation.

We are very much open to hearing from mediators who are also practising solicitors as well as mediators who have retired from legal practice or who have entered the world of mediation through a different path.

Family mediation operates within the shadow of the law and the family justice system and we are firmly of the view that mediation from mediators operating out of a family law practice adds value to our clients. Our lawyer mediators are naturally up-to-date with current family Law and practice. Any nonlawyer mediator would have the very significant benefit of working with colleagues who were busy and respected family lawyers.

We have the benefit of a legal aid contracts for family mediation.

Mediating across our network and beyond

Our head office is in modern offices on the edge of Exeter. We designe , d the layout with mediation in mind.

Our wider network includes locations in: Bath Bristol, Honiton, Plymouth, Shaftesbury, Taunton, Torquay, Wells, Weston-super-Mare and Yeovil. We are also open to stretching our boundaries beyond this.

Given the success of mediation by videoconference during the Covid 19 pandemic we are very open to hearing from mediators who are based beyond our geographic network.

The Covid-19 crisis of 2020 has led to a normalisation of online mediation. This means that a successful candidate would be able to mediate clients across our network.

Employed or Consultant?

We have a good mix of employed and self-employed members of our team. Different working models work better for different individuals.

In both cases we are committed to flexible working and homeworking.

All of our IT is cloud-based. This allowed us to move seamlessly to homeworking as the country moved into the Covid-19 lockdown.

We are therefore open to receiving applications from mediators who might want to be employed – potentially up to full-time if a lawyer mediator or part-time if a non-lawyer mediator, or from mediators who wish to work on a fee share consultanty basis.

Applicants should be accredited with the Family Mediation Council or Law Society.

We might also be prepared to consider candidates who were working towards accreditation. For those candidates we would be able to offer co-mediation experience with one of our experienced mediators and assistance in preparing their application for accreditation.

The benefits of being within our team

The benefits of being within our team include:

We are run by family lawyers and so we understand and appreciate what each other do. We also understand and appreciate what family mediators do.

We have a strong team ethos with lots and lots of experience within our team. Currently six of our lawyers have been partners and heads of the family law teams at other practices.

Our founder and Director Ian Walker is accredited as a mediator by the Law Society and Family Mediation Council. He was trained by two of the founders of the Family Mediators Association, namely Henry Brown and Felicity White. He was also subsequently trained in the hybrid model of family mediation by Henry Brown. Ian has in the past been a trustee of the Family Mediators Association and is a member of the Dispute Resolution Committee of Resolution. Ian is also trained in child inclusive mediation and is a PPC. Mediation is therefore very much part of the DNA of our practice.

We are one of the fastest growing practices in the South-West – as our network increases so will the opportunity for casework.

Most importantly – we all get on with each other and we have a happy workplace. (Which includes a pool table).

Email in confidence

If you are interested in joining us then please send a CV in confidence to me at: ianwalker@familylawandmediation.co.uk

We are very much open to hearing from family lawyers who are slightly beyond our existing office network, as well as from family lawyers who are more local.