The Mediation Centre
7/8 St.Mary's Grove, Stafford, ST16 2AT

Mediation phoneline :
01785 273133

e-mail us at : tmc@nowellmeller.co.uk

Public Funding (free Legal Aid) may be available¹

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The Advisory Board of the Mediation Centre

As part of our commitment to making The Mediation Centre more robust and able to manage higher conflict and more difficult cases, we have invited a number of eminent consultants to join us as an Advisory Group, meeting infrequently but available for urgent confidential contributions. The team is drawn from the fields of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, Adult Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, Counselling, The Family Law Bar, the Church of England, Management Consultancy, and Independent Financial Advice. Our current consultants are:

Caroline Baker – Family Law Barrister and Deputy District Judge.

Caroline was employed in the Health Service prior to her training for the Bar. She has recently been appointed as a Deputy District Judge. As a family barrister for 17 years her work has encompassed all areas of family disputes.

Professor Chris Barton LLB, ILT

Chris Barton is a retired professor of family law, and formerly Director of the Staffordshire University’s Centre for the Study of the Family, Law & Social Policy. He is the author/co-author of a number of books and over a hundred other publications on child and family law and on education. In this respect, he has a career-long interest in ‘private ordering’, from domestic partnership contracts to mediation, although is more proud of his 20-year stewardship of part-time evening law courses, a provision which continues to enable local people to better themselves.

He is a qualified cricket umpire and a published short story writer.

Gwenyth Benson MBE

Gwenyth Benson is originally from a North Staffordshire farming family. She is married to Frank Benson, a civil engineer, and has five daughters. Gwenyth has been a Relate Counsellor for 35 years and was a founder member of the Stafford Conciliation Service (later Mediation Advisory Services) in 1986 and has been a mediator for 12 years.

Toni Brisby LLB.

Toni was a practicing Mediator and co-founder of The Mediation Centre with Neil Robinson. She has been Chair of the Family Mediators Association for the last two years and is also a PPC and Mediation Consultant. She has a background in counselling and treatment of alcohol and drug abuse. She has recently been enticed away from mediating to take up a position as Chair of the South Staffs NHS Executive Board.

Dr Rahim El Sharief MB., BCH., MRC Psych.

Dr El Sharief is a Consultant Psychiatrist and has been based at The Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham since 1984. He specialises in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders in children under 18. He runs a regular and busy clinic which specialises in medico-legal matters as related to child and adolescent psychiatry. His main interest is in autism.

Steve Kirwan MA (Oxon) LLM., FILCA

Steve is Managing Director of Nowell Meller Solicitors Ltd. Admitted 1988. Practised in Coventry until lst March 1994 when he joined the firm. He is experienced in conveyancing, general civil and family litigation; a Member of Resolution (formerly the Solicitors Family Law Association (SFLA)); an SFLA Accredited Specialist in Pensions and Cohabitation; Secretary to and Executive Committee Member of Staffordshire Resolution and Regional Representative to national body; Member Resolution Regional Liaison Committee; Experience of Quality Management Systems; Legal Advisor to and former Trustee of Mediation Advisory Services (formerly Stafford Mediation and North Staffs FAMS); Member of the Law Management Section of the Law Society; Associate Member of the American Bar Association; Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development; awarded an LL.M in Advanced Legal Practice (Practice Management) with Distinction by Staffordshire University; Fellow of the Institute of Legal Cashiers & Administrators; Local Conciliation Officer for the Law Society Consumer Complaints Service.

The Very Reverend Gordon Mursell – Bishop of Stafford

Gordon Mursell has spent all of his working life as a Priest in the Church of England, most of it engaged in pastoral work in urban communities in London, Liverpool, Stafford and recently in Birmingham, where he was Dean of the Cathedral. Gordon was made Bishop of Stafford in the summer of 2005. His wife Anne is a Consultant Psychiatrist.

Lisa Parkinson MA (Oxon)., PCASS.

Lisa Parkinson is a Mediator with Bristol Family Mediators Association and she is a Director of Family Mediation Training with CALM, Scotland. She is also an Assessor for the Law Society’s Family Mediation Panel. Lisa designs and delivers mediation training at an international level, running courses and workshops worldwide. She has numerous publications to her credit and in her spare time (!) is a governor of a school for children with special needs.

Beverley Sayers

Beverley is the newly appointed Mediation representative on the Family Justice Council. She is a Director of Family Mediation Manchester, and a very experienced Mediator, counsellor and consultant.

Jenny Stevenson MA, DACP, C.Psychol, AFBPsS, MBA – Consultant Clinical Psycholgist

Jenny Stevenson is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who has been practising since 1975. Following her departure as a Head of Psychology Services in the NHS she has been working in independent practice largely as an expert in family law proceedings since the late 90’s. She is the British Psychological Society’s representative on the President’s Interdisciplinary Committee in the Family Law Division. Her particular interests are attachment theory and disorders of attachment.

She is also interested in organisational change and best business practices and obtained her MBA in 1995.

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