HomeWho it’s forLawyers & advisers
TN/AUD/12
Edition 2027 · effective 1 January 2027
For lawyers & advisers
The best advice sometimes is: bring in a Neutral.
Lawyers, accountants, wealth managers and consultants act for their clients, and most high-value evaluations will come through them. A Neutral acts under a disclosed mandate rather than for one side. Knowing when to recommend one, and how to prepare a client, is part of good advice.
§ 01What you really need
Five needs, in your words.
Drawn from how people in your position actually describe the problem, not from procedure.
(Needs)
The right Neutral, quickly
Verified, conflict-checked, available.
Client outcomes
Results that preserve value and relationships.
Clear roles
The adviser advises; the Neutral stays neutral.
Enforceability
Settlements and determinations that hold.
Professional development
Skills to represent clients in Neutral processes.
What usually goes wrong: acting as a Neutral for your own client’s matter; recommending a Neutral too late; treating mediation as litigation by other means.
§ 02The cost of waiting
What the evidence says.
Sourced and dated. Use the calculator to estimate your own.
Global Pound Conference delegates who named external lawyers as the main obstacle to change in commercial dispute resolution (4,000+ stakeholders, 24 countries).
Global Pound Conference series report, via Herbert Smith Freehills · 2018 ↗Commercial mediations that settle on the day, with a further ~20% settling in the following weeks.
CEDR, Mediation success rate · 2024 ↗States party to the Singapore Convention on Mediation (60 signatories), in force since 12 September 2020.
UNCITRAL status table · 2026 ↗§ 03Evaluation for you
2 questions people in your position bring to an evaluator.
§ 04Situations you may face
3 situations where a Neutral helps.
§ 05Roles that fit
The Neutral roles people like you use most.
§ 06How we can help
Evaluation services for people in your position.
Early Neutral Evaluation
The established dispute practice: a confidential, non-binding view of the merits and the likely range of outcomes, given to the parties together, so they can settle, narrow the issues or proceed with realistic expectations. Courts in England and Wales, Singapore and the United States use it. Procedure, consent and whether the view is without prejudice are agreed in advance.
Fixed quote after scope review, or staged for complex mattersClarity DeepView™
A full Independent Neutral Evaluation™ with the twelve-part report of the Handbook (NP 6.3): mandate, evidence, issue-by-issue analysis, risk and uncertainty, calibrated conclusions and stated limitations. Sold against a specific question and deliverable, not a template.
§ 07Frame your question
Describe it. Get the evaluation question.
Written for lawyers & advisers. Leave out names and confidential details.
Explain neutrality to me as…
Your question (optional)
Connecting…
The answer
§ 08Read next