Jane Player

Practice Areas

Jane is a leading international mediator with a wide-ranging commercial practice and over 30 years’ experience as a commercial litigation solicitor in City practices.

Jane is a well-known commercial mediator, based in the UK. Practising as a mediator for over 20 years and now with Independent Mediators she also mediates for institutions such as ICC, WIPO and SIMC. Jane has also recently been asked to join panels in Japan, Indonesia and India. A commercial and pragmatic mediator, Jane’s practice ranges from technology and media sectors to general commercial cases involving joint ventures, consortia and project disputes. Consistently ranked in all the legal directories, Jane was the winner of the Corporate Livewire 2015 Legal Award for Commercial Mediator of the Year – UK. Jane also won the International Law Office (ILO) Client Choice Award 2012 in the litigation category for the UK. She has also ranked in the “Top 50 Mediators” in the UK.

Jane is particularly recommended for mediations where there are strong personalities and where there may be some cynicism towards resolution through mediation. She has an “engaging style” and is “clearly committed”. Users praised her for her “proactive approach” and “people skills”.

Comments include: “Jane gets stuck in and is easy to work with. She was a lawyer for many years so understands the litigation risks at play but she uses the right mix of intellectual ability and commercial awareness to help parties and their lawyers get a deal done.” She is further described as “robust but in a gently persuasive way” and “full of energy trying every angle to find a solution”. Referees also state “despite being a lawyer, Jane was good at steering clear of the law and ensuring that the clients’ commercial interests were best served on the day” and “Jane works well with lawyers present to play an independent but engaged role in assisting their clients to reach agreement”.

Jane is still a firm advocate of “in life” mediation and has seen an increase in her appointments especially in an economically challenging time for business. The use of mediation techniques earlier in business relationships to help parties maintain their commitment to the deal as opposed to focusing on legal rights and obligations once things go wrong, continues to prove very successful. This supports business organisations’ desire to behave responsibly and form long-term strategic relationships.

Jane joined King & Spalding in April 2012 where she was a partner in their London Disputes Group until 31 March 2017. Prior to that Jane was the co-head of the International Dispute Resolution Group at Bird & Bird which she joined in 2002. Before that, Jane spent 10 years with DLA Piper as head of their London Disputes team and seven years with Turner Kenneth Brown having qualified as a solicitor in 1987.

Jane was accredited by CEDR in 2001 but has been mediating as counsel since 1992. Jane was privy to some of the first mediations in the UK having started her career at Turner Kenneth Brown. From 2001 Jane combined her busy mediation career whilst maintaining her demanding legal practices in International law firms. Jane became a full time mediator on 1 April 2017.

Jane undertook the International Advanced Mediation course with MATA (Mediation and Training Alternatives) in 2007 and again in 2016 and participated in an ICC cross cultural mediation course in 2009. She was a member of the MATA and CEDR faculty for training mediators for many years. Additionally, Jane was appointed as a Distinguished Fellow to the International Academy of Mediators in March 2016, is a member of the Follet Group, a group of top female mediators, is on the IMI Users Counsel and was a past co-chair of the IBA Mediation section. Jane is currently co- chair of two of the seven working groups of the IMI/CCA/Strauss Institute of Dispute Resolution International Task force. Jane ensures she stays up to date with the latest mediation techniques and methodologies and is actively engaged within the mediation community.

Career

Jane joined King & Spalding in April 2012 where she was a partner in their London Disputes Group until 31 March 2017. Prior to that Jane was the co-head of the International Dispute Resolution Group at Bird & Bird which she joined in 2002. Before that, Jane spent 10 years with DLA Piper as head of their London Disputes team and seven years with Turner Kenneth Brown having qualified as a solicitor in 1987.

Jane was accredited by CEDR in 2001 but has been mediating as counsel since 1992. Jane was privy to some of the first mediations in the UK having started her career at Turner Kenneth Brown. From 2001 Jane combined her busy mediation career whilst maintaining her demanding legal practices in International law firms. Jane became a full time mediator on 1 April 2017.

Professional Memberships

Distinguished Fellow of International Academy of Mediators Panel Mediator for Singapore International Mediation Centre Panel Mediator for WIPO Panel Mediator for Japan International Mediation Centre ICC Mediator International Mediation Institute Certified Mediator Board Member of CIaM, Madrid Board Member of LCAM, London Fellow of the CMC

Publications

2019-2021. Member of an International IMI/CCA/Strauss Institute for Dispute Resolution California Mixed Mode taskforce. Co-chair of working groups 1 and 6. Summary of findings for each group to be published in the New York State Bar Association Dispute Resolution Lawyer Journal Spring 2021 Vol14 No.1. Topics deal with “ Building Dispute Resolution processes into agreements to Minimise and Manage potential conflict during the Commercial Relationship lifecycle” (WKGP 1) and “The Impact of Enforcement on Dispute Resolution Methodology” (WKGP 6)

Jan 2021: “Compromise is not a dirty word.” LinkedIn

Aug 2020: “Robots replacing Mediators – is this the future?” LinkedIn

24 Jun 2020: SAGE conference conflict resolution and mediation

May 2020: “Lockdown and its consequences requires issues to be mediated sooner.” LinkedIn

Spring 2020: GC Magazine. Mediate – don’t litigate.

Nov 2018: Chapter contribution to publication on International IP Mediation, Kluwer Int’l

2017: Contribution to the Special Issue on Mediation in Corporate Disputes, European Company Law (edited by Kluwer)

July 2016: Lawyer Monthly article – “The shifts in the international mediation landscape, the complexities of mediating daily, and what the best way to bring two parties together is”

November 2015: Co-chaired the 6th ICC International Mediation Conference in Paris –“Mediating for a Better Business Outcome”; “New Trends in Business Mediation”

October 2014: IBA Conference, Tokyo – “Mediation as an alternative method to resolve intellectual property disputes”

October 2014: ICC Conference for in-house counsel – “Use of Mediation”

May 2014: Intellectual Property Mediation Conference, Alicante, Spain, – “IP mediation techniques for breaking stalemate”

2014: Co-wrote chapter for latest Mediation Handbook entitled “Mediation in Energy Disputes” by David Richbell

November 2013: ICC & IBA Mediation Conference, Dubai, UAE – “How one best starts a mediation –on its own or in conjunction with proceedings”

Oct 2013: IQPC Corporate Counsel Exchange, Netherlands – “Dispute Wise Management”

September 2013: International Academy of Mediators Conference, Paris, France – “What drives and hampers mediation in Europe?”

August 2013: WIPO article – “Vive la resolution! – attitudes on technology mediation” published in Intellectual Property magazine

April 2013: IQPC Corporate Counsel Exchange, London – “Mediation.. Exploding the myth?”

February 2013: ICC 4th International Mediation Conference, Paris, France – “Controlling the choice and involvement of outside counsel”

October 2012: IBA Conference, Dublin – “Why not international mediation?”

March 2011: Nani Palkhivala Arbitration Centre’s Annual Int’l Conference on Arbitration – “Improving the effectiveness of Arbitration in Infrastructure projects and joint ventures”

2010: Co-wrote mediation chapter for “International Intellectual Property Arbitration” published by Wolters Kluwer

October 2009: IBA Conference, Madrid – “Mediation Across the Sectors”

2008: PLC article “Resolving Deadlock through arbitration”

Industry Sector Expertise

A brief overview of areas of practice

Banking

Commercial contracts

Commercial fraud

Company / shareholders

Competition

Construction / engineering

Defamation

Employment

Group Actions

Insolvency

Insurance / reinsurance

IT

Intellectual Property

International disputes

Joint Venture

Local and national government

Media

Medical Negligence

Oil & Gas

Partnerships

Pensions

Personal Injury

Pharma

Probate / trusts / estates

Product liability

Professional Negligence and Professional indemnity

Property

Sport

Transport / logistics