“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” ~ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Dear Friends,
The quote from one of my favourite Dickens novels aptly describes the past 12 months. It’s just slightly more than a year since the anniversary of Singapore’s lockdown in 2020. We did not know what to expect then. From all the advice and brainstorming, all we could decipher with certainty was that the Covid-19 pandemic would fundamentally change the operating norms for many companies, ours included.
Looking back, we certainly did not expect our community to grow to more than 50 accredited mediation professionals from 12 jurisdictions, covering more than 16 languages. We also did not expect to be the first in Asia to be concurrently accredited by three of the world’s top conflict management standard bodies: the International Mediation Institute, the Singapore International Mediation Institute, and most recently the Swiss Chamber of Commercial Mediation.
The results of 2020 ingrained in us the value of hard-work, team-work, and smart-work. These takeaways are fused into our plans for 2021. While political and social tensions are rising in the region, we also see individuals and corporates ready and eager to transform and seize opportunities not present before. The disruptions caused by the pandemic have amplified the attractiveness and importance of mediation.
We are hearing of numerous jurisdictions getting ready to sign and to ratify the Singapore Convention on Mediation this year. The interest in Asia to become familiar and competent in mediation is palpable. The enquiries we see each month show significant sophistication as professionals have become more sensitive to the selection of mediators, the timing of the mediation, and the format of mediation.
Being able to quickly adapt our mediation protocol to online and hybrid (ie. attendance in-person and online) platforms helped us to sustain high settlement rates of 85%. But, I think we can still do better. I believe we should aim to achieve a 95% settlement rate without compromise on mediation’s fundamental principle of party autonomy. Key to this is increased competency in amicable conflict management amongst mediators, advocates, and corporates. It was heartening thus that at our recently concluded international mediation advocacy programme, we welcomed a diverse spread of young lawyers from larger international firms and smaller firms, as well as from the public sector. Our international commercial mediation workshops have also consistently seen participants from multiple different jurisdictions. The engaged discussions during the workshops made it evident that mediation will be a key part of the narrative of 21st century lawyering.
But, for mediation to truly grow, the education must go beyond the legal sector. To this end, we have secured the support of Straus Institute to run an executive negotiation course for corporate leaders. Straus has been a top-ranked international dispute resolution education provider for nearly 2 decades and we are excited and grateful that their Managing Director, Prof Sukhsimranjit Singh, has been a keen supporter of our vision. He has brought together several of Straus’ senior faculty to deliver the Negotiation Leader’s Programme on 25 to 28 May 2021. We have negotiated a very attractive course fee and places are very limited. I would greatly encourage those of you who are interested in the latest international conflict management developments to sign up.
While we celebrate that commercial mediation is gaining traction, we are mindful that there is much more to do to develop international mediation practice. We are also keenly aware of our limitations and our need for your continued support. I wanted very much to host everyone in person in Singapore to express a personal word of thanks. In the present circumstance, my next best idea was to record a brief message. Should you have 5min, you can view it below.
I look forward to seeing you soon at our activities this year. Should you have any ideas on how we can improve, you know that I am all ears.
Please continue to stay safe and healthy.
God Bless,
Aloysius
