CEDR

Commercial Mediation

Principal Mediator & Co-Founder of CEDR, Full time Commercial Mediator

Eileen Carroll is one of the most senior and sought after mediators in practice today. Over the last 26 years she has built a unique and first class mediation practice. She has been involved in process design and broking the resolution of highly complex multi-party, billion pound disputes in addition to chairing various parts of these complex procedures. She mediated high-value and complex disputes in financial services (including banking and insurance), IT and telecommunications, public sector, property, employment, infrastructure, pensions, partnership, major joint ventures, shareholders, media, music, trademark and intellectual property. Many of her cases include business entrepreneurs, public sector organisations, celebrities, international corporations and Sovereign States.

Clients on all sides have praised Eileen’s mediation work as “masterful”, “extraordinary”, “phenomenal”, “above and beyond” and “different and more valuable than other mediators”. Eileen has a reputation for thorough and effective preparation, which she puts to good use in building an effective mediation process. As one recent user observed, “she has a very unique dynamic and pro-active approach to mediation”. She has also been publicly acknowledged for her “incredible mind which enables her to get to the bottom of any issue; she is everything you would want in a mediator”.

Clients speak of her incredible patience and resolve, as well as an engaging and constructive manner which can help difficult parties to move more quickly towards resolution. “She led the most effective opening session I have ever seen,” said one instructing solicitor.

Who's Who Legal: "Eileen is highly praised by sources. She creates a dynamic that drives towards finding a solution and offers a degree of insight that few others can match."

Eileen is regularly involved with international clients and over several years has worked with clients from the US (New York, Texas, Chicago), Norway, Turkey, California, Germany, Switzerland, India, France, Canada, New Zealand, Croatia, Iceland, UAE and Japan.

Professional Background

Eileen is the co-founder of CEDR and recognised as one of the pioneers of mediation techniques in the U.K. In 2013 Eileen was awarded Queen’s Counsel Honoris Causa by the Ministry of Justice for her “outstanding career as a commercial mediator and her unique contribution in establishing mediation in civil justice systems over the last two decades”.

Eileen began her career in the international chemical industry before becoming a partner in the city law firm Turner Kenneth Brown (now CMS). In over 20 years of practice Eileen worked with multinational corporations and a number of celebrity clients based in Europe, the Far East, India and the United States. She spent 10 years working with North American clients and worked in San Francisco with Thelen Reid Priest before returning to the U.K. to spearhead the creation of CEDR.

Eileen is the Visiting Professor of Practice at Newcastle Law School (2021 – 2023) and co-author, with Dr Karl Mackie CBE of two books: “International Mediation: Breaking Business Deadlock (third edition, 2016)” and more recently, “The Mediator’s Tale: The CEDR Story of Better Conflicts” (Bloomsbury, 2021).

English

Panel Memberships

Court of Appeal Railway Industry Disputes Panel CPR Institute Panel of Distinguished Neutrals (New York) Singapore International Mediation Centre Vienna International Arbitration Centre The China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) Abu Dhabi (ADGM) Investor State Mediators Panel

Publications

Co-author of “The Mediator’s Tale: The CEDR Story of Better Conflicts” (Bloomsbury, 2021). Co-author of “International Mediation – Breaking Business Deadlock” (Bloomsbury, 2016). Contributor to Butterworth’s’ Mediators on Mediation (Tottel, 2005). Contributed to ‘Stories Mediators Tell’ World Edition (2017), Lela Love & Glen Parker.

Public Platforms

Invited to speak at many international events, including Fordham University, Harvard Business School, OECD, World Bank and has made guest appearances on various Radio 4 programmes. Author of many articles on ADR and has spoken on numerous platforms in Europe and North America. Guest speaker at Harvard Law School and Harvard Negotiation Project – October 2017.

Other

Visiting Professor of Practice, Newcastle Law School, September 2021 – September 2023 Member of the Advisory panel of the Conflict Analysis Research Centre (CARC) at the University of Kent. Member of the Council of Distinguished Advisors of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University, California. Chair of Mary Parker Follett Group of International Female Mediators. Former Governor of Surbiton High School, London.