Member Article

Mediator launches new specialist business

Experienced Leeds lawyer and private client mediator Julia Burns has launched a new specialist mediation and conflict coaching business.

The former Irwin Mitchell lawyer has established Dove in the Room to help families resolve inheritance disputes and enable families to thrive, free from conflict. The company specialises in helping complicated families, often where they are blended or there is a business involved, to manage difficult conversations around issues such as money and succession.

The business also provides conflict awareness training to equip businesses with the skills to deal with disputes positively when they arise. Pre-mediation coaching is available to enable clients to prepare for mediation with another mediator.

Julia said: “Dove in the Room offers more than just mediation. It offers a unique, holistic approach to family conflict. Less than one third of family businesses survive the transition from first to second generation. Wealth can bring unintended consequences and complexity, which can detrimentally affect financial and emotional wellbeing. When it gets complicated, people often do nothing, which can affect the viability of a family business and leave behind a legacy of pain and suffering.

“Parties to a dispute need more than just legal advice. They need to feel that their story has been heard and understood. Diagnosing and treating the cause of conflict, often an emotional blockage, is key to unlocking the path to resolving a dispute, allowing families to thrive and their businesses to have longevity. I believe that with the right help some families can resolve their differences before it’s too late.”

Julia is the only accredited mediator in the UK with a specialist private client mediation qualification, from the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution. She is still practising as a contentious probate solicitor at Merali Beedle Solicitors. She is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, the Association of Contentious Trusts and Probate Specialists and the Contentious Trusts Association.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Richard Abbott .