Mediating With Solicitors Present – A Practical Guide To Hybrid Mediations

Mediations involving solicitors can be among the most productive sessions I facilitate. Whether described as hybrid or integrated mediation, the key feature is that participants have their legal advisers present to support them, while the mediation process still retains its flexibility and confidentiality.

Some practitioners emphasise the use of confidential separate discussions as the defining feature of hybrid mediation. In practice, however, the term is now more commonly associated with solicitor involvement within the mediation process.

As with all mediation practice, training provides the framework rather than a rigid formula for how to incorporate many aspects of civil mediation into the family context. Having trained in civil mediation in 2012 and later in hybrid mediation with Henry Brown in 2018, I have for some time adapted aspects of the process to reflect what works best in practice, while always remaining grounded in the core principles of family mediation.