CEDR

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• Overview
• Experience
• Style/Feedback
• Professional skills
• Full profile

To contact or appoint Tony Allen, call CEDR on +44 (0)207 536 6060 or email adr@cedr.com

Personal Style

Tony brings flexibility of thought and experience to ensure that the process is suited to the needs of each individual case, and will always be alive to the possibility of new approaches in making resolution possible. He also tries to bring a light touch to the most sensitive and emotional of cases without in any way detracting from the seriousness of the cause of the dispute or the difficulties in resolving it, thus helping parties to cope with often profoundly painful matters constructively and thus to make closure possible at all levels. He is experienced in handling cases with an apparently serious imbalance of power between the parties, and is used to handling highly charged and emotional disputes.

He has developed particularly effective negotiating techniques for dealing with bargaining over financial compensation by using confidential communication with each party over modifications to their disclosed positions so as to ascertain true gaps, and deploying that knowledge to assist parties to bridge even substantial differences with minimal loss of face. Such techniques have closed gaps as large as £9 million.

Feedback – Clients (taken by CEDR)

• “Excellent, absolutely excellent. He had just the right approach and did a splendid job.”
• “His reputation precedes him and he was able to live up to it on the day.”
• “Tony did it again! Mediation at its best.”
• “Tony inspired confidence in the process…he understands the mediation game and plays it well.”
• “Tony was very sharp. He really knew what he was talking about and was quick to pick up the main issues. He was approachable and highly competent.”
• “Tony was brilliant. We were very impressed with the way he analysed issues and reconciled people’s concerns.”
• “Tony could talk on the level with QCs and equally with clients. His attention to detail was amazing.”
• “Tony is an affable, relaxed and friendly man. But he can be firm and evaluative when he needs to be.”
• “Good rapport with all sides and especially the client… grasped the issues very quickly.”
• “Tony worked very hard. He took a robust and challenging approach which was right and proper in this case.”
• “It was quite clear that he had come to terms with the issues and assimilated a large amount of information in a short space of time. He dealt with the mediation in a logical and well thought-out way.”
• “It was a classic case where a sensible mediator, thoroughly prepared and with exactly the right touch, made (perhaps) all or (certainly) much of the difference between achieving and not achieving a sensible compromise.”
• “He always has a very good grasp of all the technical issues and is able to deal with the broader picture. He is very personable and his style is always just right. His knowledge both from a legal point of view and of the mediation process is first rate.”
• “absolutely the best mediator I’ve come across.”
• “...very pro-active - not proactive though in trying to influence anyone.”
• “I would definitely be happy to use Tony “again and again and again”!”
• “….this case [which] involved virtually everything that makes litigation difficult to settle: high emotional levels, a challenging/forceful counsel (in at least one case), insurance parties operating behind the scenes, and settlement efforts being initiated only in the late stages of litigation after each side had invested heavily in the dispute. Not only was Tony at home and at ease in navigating this minefield, he was superbly capable of putting the parties themselves at ease and helping them overcome these barriers.”
• Claimant lawyer: “Tony was very good at engaging [my] client: he made her feel the mediation was about her and that her views were listened to and taken seriously – she had her say.
• Defendant lawyer in the same case: “Tony Allen was excellent and handled the issues very well. It was a case that had to be settled but [I] wasn’t optimistic going into the mediation as the parties were so far apart in both quantum and the issues involved. He would most certainly have gone to court had the mediation not reached settlement. Tony handled the defendant, a surgeon, extremely well with the right level of sensitivity to the fact that he was reluctant to pay anything, given he felt he’d done nothing wrong.”
• “He understood issues – well prepared, good deft touch – dealt with everyone appropriately. The claimants were there which made things very emotional at times and Tony was very good at managing this. Realistic; facilitative; clearly thinking about the issue as he was bringing up points that even their QC hadn’t thought of.”
• A claimant: “Tony gets 12 out of 10 in my book. At the end honour was satisfied. I thought he was very friendly and open. Tenacious! The most energetic and enthusiastic mediator I have ever come across from the beginning to the very end! I would use him again and recommend him as well. I honestly couldn’t hold him in higher esteem.”
• Defendant lawyer in the same case: “…absolutely excellent! He was definitely the best mediator I’ve come across. He took a very pro-active role He really earned his money. A lot of mediators just seem to sit there. He was very pro-active - not proactive though in trying to influence anyone.”
• “We have used him two or three times before and would recommend him to anyone. I actually didn’t think this mediation would settle but it did! I guess it was thanks to him.”
• Client in employment facilitation: “Tony took time to be fully briefed but did not allow that briefing to “paralyse” his efforts at mediation, i.e. he did not assume that what he knew rules out various possibilities. He managed to get two very intransigent people, whose relationship appeared almost irreparably to have broken down, both to respond positively to mediation and each other and to come up with a way forward that I was very agreeably surprised to find. He was clearly extremely skilled at bringing out the best of both these individuals . mentoring and coaching by an earlier consultant who I rated highly simply failed to get anything like the response that Tony secured.”
• Party in the same case: “Tony really gripped the issues and the peripheral difficulties that had prevented an in-house solution to the problems. He thoroughly demonstrated an invaluable insight into what makes individuals tick, and his use of shuttle diplomacy between the injured parties was a master stroke. Thank you for bringing sunshine back to the workplace.”
• Claimant’ssolicitor in a clinical claim:“… a very experienced mediator who was well prepared: very good with the family as it involved a fatal case – [he] made the family feel like [the] main focus.
• Defendant’s solicitor in the same case: [he] got on well with the claimant’s family. Without him it wouldn’t have settled…. A lot of experience and well regarded.”

Feedback – Directories

• "Authoritative but courteous," Allen is a firm favourite for personal injury and clinical negligence mediations. Instructing solicitors are full of praise for his "smoothing manner in multiparty cases," noting that he "effectively works his way through seemingly irresolvable disputes."
• Allen remains an extremely highly regarded mediator with expertise in personal injury, clinical negligence and public law disputes. He also handles a number of commercial disputes, especially where there is an insurance element. Interviewees say he is "a wonderful mediator, loved by clients and very personable and congenial."
• Tony Allen of CEDR Solve is a mediator of rare qualities. He has a ‘warm, avuncular style’ and radiates ‘commitment’ and ‘calm’. While handling various types of dispute, his experience in practice makes him one of the go-to mediators for complex personal injury and clinical negligence disputes.
• “acts on an array of personal injury and clinical negligence matters. Praised by instructing solicitors, he is noted for his amenable client-facing manner and his great communication skills.”

Extracts from Chambers & Partners Guide to the Legal Profession and The Legal 500

Updated: August 2017