Michel Kallipetis QC FCIArb
Leaders in Law endorses Michel Kallipetis QC FCIArb as our exclusively recommended Commercial Mediation expert in the United Kingdom. If you wish to get in touch with Michel, please use the contact information provided above.
Michel is the former Head of Littleton Chambers, and has 40 years’ experience as a practising barrister in the field of general commercial, professional negligence and employment work. He is recognised in The Legal Directories as an expert in his field in Mediation, Commercial Litigation and Professional Negligence. He is an Accredited Mediator with CEDR and ADR Chambers, was appointed to the Hong Kong HKIAC Accredited Mediator Panel and as one of the first CIArb Mediation Fellows in 2008.
In 2009 he was made a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators and was its President for the year 2021-2022. In 2012 Michel was invited to become a member of the Singapore International Mediation Centre’s Panel of Mediators. He is a member of The Sports Resolution Panel and The Panel of Independent Mediators and is a Chartered Arbitrator. He is fluent in German, and has a working knowledge of French.
Michel Kallipetis regularly mediates a wide variety of disputes national and internationally including: partnerships; banking; insurance and re-insurance; all areas of employment disputes including racial and sex discrimination claims and pension rights; solicitors and valuers’ negligence claims; medical negligence and personal injuries claims; construction, engineering and commercial disputes with claims over several £100m including referrals from the Commercial Court and the Technology & Construction Court. He has also mediated a variety of land disputes involving rights of way and disputed boundaries. Many of the mediations have been multi party disputes and others have involved international companies and the laws of other countries. He has mediated for the ICC, and the AAA.
Michel initiated and was the first Chairman of the Bar Council ADR Committee holding the position for 9 years until retiring from the position in summer of 2008. He was a member of the working party which drafted the EU Code of Practice for Mediators, and gave expert opinion to JURI, the legal service committee of the European Parliament, prior to its adopting the European ADR Directive. He was a member of the UNCITRAL Working Group II which drafted the Singapore Convention on Mediation.
Michel regularly conducts training sessions for barristers and solicitors to enable them to represent their clients more effectively in mediation. He carried out mediation training for the Hong Kong judiciary at the request of the Chief Justice, and more recently, conducted a seminar on mediation advocacy for the Hong Kong Bar which was streamed to the PRC.
Michel Kallipetis led a team to train Arbitrators for the Kingdom of Bhutan at the request of the Chief Justice and arbitrates a variety of national and international commercial disputes.
He is a founding member of Independent Mediators Limited
He was counsel for the ADR Group in the seminal case Halsey v Milton Keynes, and in Brown v Rice and Patel, and has been instructed on behalf of the Appellant in the forthcoming case of Merthyr Tydfil v Churchill which will revisit the Court of Appeal decision in Halsey.
In November 2020 Michel was awarded ‘Lawyer of the Year’ in the Mediation category in the Who’s Who Legal awards, and has been one of WWL’s Thought Leaders in mediation for several years.
Mixing the authority and stature of a KC and a former Deputy High Court Judge with his personal charm Michel is able to quickly gain the trust of the parties. He blends facilitative and evaluative techniques as the situation demands to create his own versatile and effective style of mediation and is able to affect settlement in a more direct manner than many other mediators.
Training/talks/books/articles
Talks and Training Michel has given include:
He regularly conducts training sessions for barristers and solicitors to enable them to represent their clients more effectively in mediation. He has carried out mediation training for the Hong Kong judiciary at the request of the Chief Justice, and the for the Bar in England, Hong Kong, Trinidad, Guernsey and Jersey. He was a Recorder and sat as a deputy High Court Judge in Queen’s Bench, Chancery and the TCC for over twenty years.
Books/articles:
He is the author of several articles on mediation in the English legal press.
- He is the author of a chapter on ‘Mediation in Employment disputes’ in “Mediators on Mediation”
- Co-author with Stephen Ruttle KC of the chapter on “Mediation in the UK” in Volume I of ‘Mediation in Business’ published by Kluwer
- Author of the chapter on ‘Mediation Privilege and Confidentiality and the EU Directive’ in Volume II.
- Author of the Chapter on ‘Mediation Ethics’ in “How to Master Commercial Mediation” published by Bloomsbury in January 2015.
- Banking / Finance
- Commercial contracts
- Commercial fraud / Fraud
- Company shareholders
- Competition
- Construction and engineering
- Defamation
- Employment
- Franchise
- Group actions
- Insolvency
- I.T.
- Insurance / reinsurance
- Intellectual Property
- International
- Local and national government
- Medical negligence / Personal injury
- Oil and gas
- Partnerships
- Pensions
- Probate / Trusts / Estates
- Professional negligence
- Property
- Regulatory
- Sport
- Transport / logistics
- Hong Kong HKIAC Accredited Mediator Panel
- CIArb Mediation Fellow
- Distinguished Fellow and former President of the International Academy of Mediators
- Singapore International Mediation Centre’s Panel of Mediators
- Japan International Mediation Centre’s Panel of Mediators
- Member of Sport Resolution (UK) panel
- PIM Senior Mediator
- CMC Registered Mediator
- International Mediation Institute Certified Mediator
- Chartered Arbitrator
Firm Description:
- a group of leading, full-time civil and commercial mediators whose independent practices are centrally managed
- Europe’s only dedicated chambers of full-time independent commercial mediators
- all our members are listed as top mediators in Chambers & Partners and Legal 500
- the most efficient, cost-effective and only way to appoint these mediators.
Quality
- direct access to some of Europe’s leading commercial mediators
Convenience
- a single phone call to confirm availability and book any of our mediators
- immediate access to these mediators’ diaries for enquiries and bookings
- we won’t have to “check if they are available and get back to you”
- other leading mediators available instantly if first choice is not
Value
- clients only pay for the mediator
- there are none of the administration costs, mark-up or overheads associated with some mediation service providers
Transparency
- complete transparency of fee arrangements
Advice
- if required, on choice of mediator and the appropriateness of mediation
- another mediation service provider
- another mediator panel
- offering inexperienced or unsuitable mediators – we only have top-flight mediators
- “pushing” particular mediators – we let their reputations speak for themselves
