Rachael Bicknell

Practice Areas

Agriculture and rural business

Boundary and access

Breach of contract and warranty claims

Commercial and business

Construction and engineering

Corporate and shareholder

Employment

Energy

Family business

Inheritance and executry

Insolvency

Land and forestry

Landlord and tenant

Partnerships

Professional negligence

Real Estate

Sale of goods and services

Telecoms

Career

Rachael is one of 60 commercial mediators in the UK ranked in Chambers and Partners (2024) and is also recognised as a Leading UK Mediator in Legal 500 (2024). She has mediated over 100 commercial and civil disputes and now mediates around 25 high value cases each year. In the last 2 years she has mediated disputes with a combined value of c.£50 million, and with an average dispute value of c.£1 million

Rachael consistently receives excellent client feedback and has been described as “hugely skilful”, “impressive”, “incredible”, “the best mediator I’ve come across in a long time” and “my first choice of mediator”. She is renowned for her calm, assured and personable manner, her thorough preparation, and her ability to grasp complex technical issues and to quickly understand multiple issues and competing interests. Rachael is also praised for her tenacity and resilience in helping the parties to come to a resolution, even when they remain some considerable distance apart.

Rachael is the founder of Squaring Circles, winner of a UK National Mediation Award in 2020. For 12 years she practised as a dispute resolution solicitor at two of the UK’s most successful premium law firms, specialising in commercial, professional negligence, insolvency, real estate, corporate and shareholder disputes. During this time Rachael represented clients in mediations and solicitor to solicitor negotiations of commercial disputes ranging in value from tens of thousands to multimillion pound claims.

Reflecting her former practice, Rachael is routinely instructed in a broad range of commercial and civil disputes, including those where the subject matter is out with her expertise as a solicitor. She has a strong reputation in commercial, professional negligence, construction, real estate, insolvency, company, business interruption, partnership, boardroom, family business, rural business and agriculture, inheritance and executry disputes. She is on the UK panels for the RICS and the Scottish Land Commission. She handles disputes involving corporates, insurers, private, public and third sector clients and has mediated disputes with parties from the UK, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, the USA, Canada and Australia.

Rachael is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators (IAM), an invite-only organisation of the world’s pre-eminent commercial mediators. She is also certified by the International Mediation Institute (IMI) and the Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) and a registered civil and commercial mediator with the Civil Mediation Council (CMC). She trained in negotiation and mediation at Harvard Law School and the Strauss Institute at the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law respectively. She is a Fellow of ADR ODR International and on the mediation panels for the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB) in Seoul and the ADGM Arbitration Centre in Abu Dhabi.

Rachael is now a member of the training faculty on the RICS Mediation Training Programme and until 2023 taught negotiation skills on the Online LLM in Dispute Resolution at the University of Aberdeen, a UK top-10 law school.

Professional Memberships

Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators

International Mediation Institute (IMI) Certified Mediator

Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) Certified Mediator

Specialist Mediator of the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association

President's Panel Mediator of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Arbitration Centre Panel of Mediators

Member (MCIArb) of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb)

Civil Mediation Council registered mediator

Scottish Mediation registered mediator

Education