Liam Guidera, Chair and Helen Kilroy, Vice-Chair

The committee supports members in relation to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and promotes mediation, arbitration, and other ADR methods. It has increased considerably in size, now comprising some 20 members who practise in a wide range of areas, both in the private and the public sectors.

During 2025, the committee updated and relaunched the ‘Find a Mediator’ page on the Law Society’s website as a key resource. This enables practitioners and members of the public to access and find a mediator to facilitate a wide range of dispute-resolution methods. This has been long overdue and remains something of a work in progress in terms of making it as accessible as possible to practitioners and members of the public. We also published a practice direction in the Gazette reminding solicitors of their obligations to provide information on mediation to their clients prior to instituting proceedings, and attached some relevant precedents.

Mediation was a particular focus of the committee this year, holding the ‘Mediation: a New Era’ seminar in March 2025 and drafting a series of articles on different aspects of mediation for the Gazette, including:

• ‘A costly lesson’ (Bill Holohan SC), published in the March 2026 issue, reviewing recent High Court decisions and its unequivocal stance on compliance with the section 14 declaration of the Mediation Act 2017,
• ‘Alternative energy’, focusing on input from the chair Liam Guidera and vice-chair Helen Kilroy in April 2025, and a
• Practice note on section 14 of the Mediation Act 2017 in the Jan/Feb 2026 issue

The committee continues to work with Arbitration Ireland, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators – Irish Branch, and others to support the development of arbitration and adjudication practice in Ireland for domestic and international dispute resolution. The Law Society’s appointees to the International Chamber of Commerce National Committee, the Commission on ADR and Arbitration, and the Court of Arbitration continue to represent the profession at an international level. The committee supports the work done by Law Society past-president Eamon Harrington as the Law Society nominee on the Shadow Mediation Council.

The committee is responsible for the Law Society’s panel of arbitrators, which can be found on the committee page of the Law Society’s website. Building on prior work in 2024, the committee contributed to this panel, with existing members undertaking an application process. Members who have experience as arbitrators and wish to be considered are invited to apply for membership of the panel. The committee is keen to encourage a wide array of diverse applicants to go on the arbitration panel.

The committee also promotes and contributes to ADR seminars, workshops, and other events. This year, committee members have participated in a wide range of such events to inform and educate the profession, trainees, and the wider public. Some highlights included:

• Organising a pop-up event for Dublin International Disputes Week on 20 October. This has now become an annual feature. The title of the side event was ‘The direction of travel in arbitration/mediation/litigation and the economics of dispute resolution’. Panellists included Mr Justice David Barniville, Emma Howard (economist and lecturer at TU Dublin), Jonathan Ward (former world president of CIArb and current chair of LCAM), as well as ADR Committee members Brian McMullan, Karen Killoran, Kevin Harnett, and Hannah Shaw.
• Hosting an experience-sharing workshop for members of the Law Society Arbitration panel. This is a roundtable annual event that is well attended by panel members, in person as well as online. It provides an opportunity to meet and explore general issues of mutual interest arising from domestic practice.
• Co-sponsoring the Arbitration Ireland Young Practitioners’ Seminar (20 November 2025), in conjunction with Dublin International Arbitration Day.
• Providing a speaker for the mediation module for the Law Society Advanced Electives.

Finally, I wish to sincerely thank all committee members, especially John Lunney, for his tenure as committee secretary for 12-13 years; and David Irwin, incoming secretary, who took over from John on 26 September 2025.