Robin Somerville - Resolving Legal Problems

Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)

Does your organisation handle, deal with or resolve disputes or complaints from customers? Would you like to improve the customer experience, resolve disputes more quickly and save time and resource?

I can help by advising or assisting you design effective, efficient, fair and robust dispute resolution systems and processes, particularly where online dispute resolution would be of assistance.

Having previously set up, grown and successfully sold three tech start ups, and been an equity holding non-exec at a leading online sales aggregator for over 13 years, it was inevitable that my interests in online and dispute resolution would come together.

Indeed, Professor Richard Susskind OBE, a thought leader in online courts and online dispute resolution and author of the seminal ‘Tomorrow Lawyer’ wrote of me: “a remarkable set of experiences … all leading up to ODR, in my view!”.

I am an external Online Dispute Resolution Consultant for Mishcon de Reya, where I have worked to explore the commercial and technical prospects of an online dispute and arbitration platform both specifically in respect of divorce cases but also disputes more widely.

My dissertation for my Masters Degree in Law (LLM) at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of Law centred around the fusing of arbitration, mediation and online dispute resolution processes into one online platform to resolve most, if not all, civil disputes.

Because I have a rare foot in both camps, I am able to make the links between technology and dispute resolution to deliver efficient and effective systems that would escape both most lawyers and IT professionals.

I am a practising mediator, arbitrator and barrister. I am on the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)’s panel of arbitrators and mediators.  

I was also a Chartered IT Professional at the British Computer Society between 2014-17. I am now a member of the Society of Computers and Law and a Board Member of the Arbitration Club – technology Branch.

Why not contact me, explain the situation you’re in to see if I can be of assistance.

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