Stephen Ruttle QC’s Full CV 

Qualifications

B.A.Honours Degree in English/Law - Queen's College Cambridge

Areas of Practice

• Mediation as Mediator
• Arbitration as Arbitrator

Practice Profile

Bencher Gray's Inn 2004

Accredited and Registered by CEDR as a Mediator 1998

Member of ARIAS US 1998

Member of the Civil Justice Council ADR Committee 2000

Member of the Bar Council ADR Committee 2000 - 2007

Board Member of Mediation UK 2001- 2005

Founder Director of Wandsworth Mediation Service 2002

Independent Mediator Board Member of the Civil Mediation Council 2003-2005

Vice-Chairman of Mediation UK 2004 - 2005

Member: Panel of Independent Mediators (PIM) 2005

Accredited Mediator at Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre 2006

Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators 2007

Lieutenant-Bailiff Guernsey 2008

Stephen Ruttle is a full time Commercial Mediator and Arbitrator. He is an enthusiastic believer in mediation and has successfully mediated many hundreds of intractable commercial disputes with sums involved, in individual cases, of up to £2bn.

He has for many years been regarded as among the top 10 commercial mediators practising in the UK.

He acts in addition as a Commercial Arbitrator of insurance, reinsurance and general commercial disputes.

Mediation

Stephen began to mediate commercial disputes in 1999.  Most of these cases came from fields in which he had expertise as a commercial Queen's Council, principally insurance, reinsurance and shipping.  He has consistently, for each of the last 10 years, mediated a large number of such disputes.  He has very extensive experience of mediating shipping disputes of all types and these probably make up about 25% of his entire annual mediation workload.

From the very beginning of his mediation career, however, Stephen has successfully mediated disputes of other types.  He mediated cases relating to environmental (river) pollution, minority shareholder petitions, professional negligence from a number of different fields (such as pensions, solicitors, engineers and insurance brokers), construction and property investment in his first two years mediating.  His mediation practice grew rapidly.  He now mediates all types of commercial and business dispute.  His practice ranges from typical commercial disputes in the insurance, reinsurance, banking and shipping fields, to common law disputes such as construction, professional negligence, technology and sale of goods/supply of services to Chancery problems such as intellectual property, insolvency, Companies Act petitions, trusts, wills and taxation.  He mediates a significant number of employment disputes.  He has mediated some clinical negligence cases and marine personal injury and death claims.  He does not currently mediate family law disputes (although he hopes to qualify as a Family Law mediator soon) and non-marine personal injury claims.

By about 2003 Stephen's workload from mediation was so considerable that he began to stop acting as an advocate in Court.  For the last five or six years he has effectively worked full time as a Commercial Mediator and Arbitrator.

Stephen is a member of a number of national and international mediation organisations and specialist mediation panel.

He is heavily involved in the community mediation movement in the voluntary sector.  For a number of years he was on the board of Mediation UK, then the national community mediation organisation.  He is a founder Director of a community mediation charity called Wandsworth Mediation Service and is currently involved in developing local dispute resolution/community mediation initiatives in Wandsworth.  As Chairman of Wandsworth Mediation Service he has developed an innovative small legal claims mediation service.  

He regularly mediates clerical and other church based disputes on a voluntary basis and is keen to develop mediation initiatives between faith groups.

He is an enthusiastic advocate of mediation and regularly writes, lectures and speaks about mediation, its development and its advantages.  By way of example in March 2006 he took part in a 3 day mediation training session for the judiciary in Hong Kong.  He will be involved later in 2009 in delivering mediation training to professionals in Hong Kong.  He has spoken about mediation to a gathering of marine professionals in Athens. 

By April 2009 Stephen has mediated over 650 commercial disputes in addition to a significant number of pro bono, non-commercial disputes typically of a community or clerical nature.  At present he would usually spend three days a week mediating the remaining time being spent recovering and preparing for the next!

He has consistently featured in the top rankings of the various legal directories such as Chambers & Partners under the heading "Mediation".  For the last six years he has featured as one of the top 10 UK Commercial Mediators. 

Sample mediations

Because the disputes that Stephen mediates come from all areas of practice comprising all types of legal problems, it is not possible to give a sample or, other than in general terms set out above, to identify a particular mediation expertise.  In reality his expertise is as a Mediator rather than as a mediator of a particular sort of case.  The sums of money at stake have ranged from as little as £25,000 to as much as £2 billion.  Typically the disputes will involve $1 million or more.  Much of the work he mediates is international in nature and many disputes involve parties who are not based in the UK.  Most of his mediations take place in London, but he regularly mediates elsewhere in the United Kingdom and has mediated a number of cases in Athens, New York, Hong Kong and elsewhere.  Along with many other Commercial mediators he has noticed a trend in the last few years for an increasing proportion of those disputes that do settle (about 80% in his experience) to settle after the Mediation Day.  This frequently involves extensive on-going contact between himself, the parties and their legal advisers.

Arbitration

The balance of his practice (about 20%) is taken up with Commercial Arbitration. He arbitrates extensively in the reinsurance and insurance field usually sitting as Sole Arbitrator or as the Chairman of the Panel. He writes maybe 5 Awards a year and at any one time will probably have been 20 on-going appointments. This part of his practice is currently increasing with recent appointments from the construction industry and other fields.

He has Arbitrated a number of ICC and LCIA disputes and in 2006 co-authored a chapter "Better Dispute Resolution - The Development and Practice of Mediation in the United Kingdom between 1995 and 2005" in the ICC publication "ADR in Business".

General Practice

Stephen's practice at the Bar was primarily reinsurance, marine and non-marine insurance and general commercial and shipping law. He was involved in many leading reported cases.

Legal Directory Comments

"combines the kudos and acumen of a top commercial silk with strong people skills," "a good listener" with "great empathy" and "immense reserves of patience" Legal 500 (2008)

"for big important disputes I always go to Ruttle, Wonderful presence, brilliant at narrowing down the issues quickly" Chambers & Partners (2007/8)

"the person for shipping and insurance" "an absolute natural mediator, it is clear he really does know his stuff" "immediately impresses, makes any party feel comfortable" "he always does a good job" Chambers & Partners (2007)

"His reputation for commercial mediation continues to rise. His "light touch", "robust charm" and sense of humour has found appeal outside his acknowledged specialist areas of insurance, reinsurance and marine work. Clients warm to his "facilitative negotiating style", "clear distillation of the issues" and ability to sustain dialogue against the odds. He "doesn't spent hours dancing around the daffodils" and instead "cuts to the chase", "baring his teeth where necessary". Legal 500 (2006)

"Excellent ... commands respect as a "top notch" Mediator". Chambers & Partners (2005/6)

"Famed for his skills as a Mediator". Legal 500 (2005)

"A mediator with "charisma and bags of positive energy". Chambers & Partners (2004/5)

"An outstanding mediator" Legal 500 (2004)

A mediator with an "authoritative style" but one who is also "facilitative and easy to work with". Chambers & Partners (2003/4)

"Talented and charismatic mediator", "so well regarded it's untrue". Chambers & Partners (2002/3)

An immensely capable and effective mediator "who combines a first class Forensic ability" with a facility for "capturing the confidence of parties. Chambers & Partners (2001/2)

He was one of seven leading Silks in the top tier of the Insurance and Reinsurance section of the Legal 500 2006 and 2007 where comments

include:

"Newly recommended this year for his Arbitration work".

"Accompanied in the top tier by recommended "arbitrator and mediator" Stephen Ruttle Q.C.".

Publications

Lecturer at numerous Insurance, Reinsurance and Mediation Seminars.

Co-Author of "Insurance Brokers" section in Professional Negligence and Liability, LLP 2000.

Contributor to Butterworths, "Mediators on Mediation, Leading Mediator Perspectives on the Practice of Commercial Mediation" 2005.

Co-Author of Chapter 9 in the ICC publication ADR in Business 2006 ("Better Dispute Resolution - The Development and Practice of Mediation in the United Kingdom between 1995 and 2005").