Phillip Wallis
Phillip has experience in :
- Tax
- Property
- Finance
- Company
- Construction
- Contract Disputes
- Employment
- Civil Fraud
- Trust Litigation
- Business Re-Structuring
- Intellectual Property
- Partnership and Shareholder Disputes
- Corporate Litigation in the UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands.
- Corporate and Individual Voluntary Arrangements.
About Phillip
Phillip has co-owned and run businesses for forty years. The journey to Phillip becoming an accredited mediator arose from his own extensive experiences, being directly involved in mediations and litigation, which were “all-consuming, arduous and life influencing”.
The benefits of such hindsight are invaluable, which is why Phillip decided to use those experiences, to help others resolve their disagreements.
Although Mediation is becoming a more prevalent step in the litigation process, it should also be sufficiently detached from the technical legal issues, in order to offer a fresh perspective. Whilst it is important to understand the judicial process, if you want to avoid the enormous costs and uncertainty of trial, then an experienced commercial approach is required.
Phillip’s background has helped him to recognise and develop a three-tier mediation technique.
Tier 1: An informed focus on the specific technical & commercial aspects in dispute.
Tier 2: A visceral understanding of the parties and their respective positions.
Tier 3: Helping the parties understand what is in their own best interests.
If at all possible you/or your clients should stay in control because the alternative is a legal process where justice, as determined by the rule of law, can often be profoundly different to expectations.
Above all else, a Mediator should have extensive commercial knowledge and enlightened people skills.
In Phillip’s experience it can often be basic misunderstandings, triggered by very powerful emotions, that become more of an obstacle to the solution than the headline points. It is how the Mediator navigates through all of this that becomes part of the critical pathway to settlement.
This is where years of business experience is invaluable and why, at PDR, we really do understand conflict and how to become a proactive part of the resolution process.
Richard Gordon
Richard has experience in:
- National and International Financial Markets
- Finance
- The Workplace
- Corporate Management
- Employment
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Foreign Exchange & Currency
- Derivatives & Counter-Parties
About Richard
In the world of high-stakes business, disputes aren’t just about assets or contracts—they’re about people. Richard brings a unique blend of commercial expertise and emotional intelligence to the table, making him the ideal mediator for resolving even the most complex conflicts.
Richard combines extensive experience in global financial markets with a deep understanding of human dynamics. His career began in the mid-80s, trading from the City of London, where he learned to thrive in a fiercely competitive environment. By his late 30s, Richard was a Director at Bank of America, managing substantial global trades and leading a team of 40 high-performing individuals.
Richard knows what drives people in high-pressure environments, and how emotions and personalities influence disputes.
Reflecting on his journey, Richard observes:
“Financial success was always important to me, but time has redefined what success means. Now, it’s about balance – combining financial achievement with personal contentment – and helping others move forward positively on their own journeys.” It is this awareness, alongside Richard’s knowledgeable background, that sits at the heart of his mediation skills.
Richard understands what drives people in the business environment and the unavoidable politics of corporate life. Whether a dispute centres around hard assets such as a retail business, manufacturing etc or more abstract ones such as finance or intellectual property, ever-present are personalities and the raw emotions that come with any perceived success or failure.
Richard co-founded Progressive Dispute Resolutions Ltd in recognition of how the modern business environment has changed. The vast and previously unimaginable impact of technology since the Millennium has permanently changed business, whilst at the same time there remains the aftershock of the financial markets collapse in 2008 and the Pandemic in 2020. Business has needed to respond to all of this, and continues to do so amidst geopolitical instability and the evolution of Artificial Intelligence.
Richard muses “These are all seismic events that have happened – which will continue to have a profound impact across the globe, however when it comes to disputes, the one constant is always people!“
Two parties can see the same truth differently, so whatever the nature of a business may be, or the idiosyncrasies of any dispute, the common denominator is how that dispute reflects the characters in the background.
Richard has robust commercial knowledge but is also empathetic and understanding of people; conflating both is an exceptional skill which Richard carries in abundance.
In keeping with the Progressive Dispute Resolution theme, Richard sees how mediation techniques must now evolve through awareness and experience, to tackle the issues that divide people in the modern world.
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