The ethos of Canterbury Christ Church University's Mediation Clinic is to deliver a quality, professional dispute resolution service to support local needs. We provide services that cover commercial and workplace disputes, as well as issues students might face, and can help clients avoid costly legal action.

Find out more about how mediation works and the mediation services we offer. 

Mediation is a voluntary, confidential, and empowering process where parties to a dispute can resolve their differences in a structured, yet informal, setting, with the guidance of an impartial mediator who does not take sides.

The whole process is completely confidential and is much quicker and cheaper than going to court.

Benefits of mediation

  • Less costly than litigation.
  • Quicker than litigation.
  • More informal.
  • No win-lose.
  • Helps maintain relationships.
  • Outcome agreed together.

Next steps

If you think mediation might help you, then the next step is to contact us and tell us a little about your dispute. You can contact us in a number of different ways. Send us an e-mail at: mediationclinic@canterbury.ac.uk. We will respond to your enquiry as swiftly as possible.

Data collected by the Mediation Clinic from your initial enquiry and throughout the mediation process, in various formats, as possible commencement and ongoing service provision to you is processed, by staff and associates of the Mediation Clinic, under the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and Data Protection Act 2018, in accordance with the associated University Privacy Notice. Please do ask us at the Clinic for a printed copy of the University Data Protection policy if this is a format you would prefer.

Once we have discussed your needs, and explained the mediation process to you, the next step will be to contact the other party in the dispute. We will only ever do this on your say so. Once they have also agreed to attend a suitable date for a meeting (s) will then be organised.

Our mediators

The Mediation Clinic operates a model of co-mediation and uses two mediators for each dispute to ensure total impartiality. We usually team an internal and external mediator to give you the best combination of skills and expertise. Internal mediators are denoted (*).

Ben Waters*

Ben is an accredited mediator, solicitor and senior lecturer in law at Canterbury Christ Church University. He is the founder member of the University’s Mediation Clinic, the first of its kind to be based in a UK university. He has extensive experience of civil litigation and has conducted mediations in civil, construction, landlord and tenant, neighbour and family disputes. Download Ben Waters Mediator C.V.

Konstantinos Siliafis*

Konstantinos is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Canterbury Christ Church University. He is a qualified Civil and Commercial and Workplace mediator. He has particular expertise in Law of Obligations (Contract & Tort) and Commercial Law. Download Konstantinos Siliafis' Mediator C.V.

Don McCue

Don is a qualified barrister and an accredited mediator through ADR Group. He specialises in all types of commercial disputes and has experience in dealing with clients of every kind. Download Don McCue's Mediator C.V.

Gowri Nanayakkara*

Gowri is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Canterbury Christ Church University. She is a qualified Civil and Commercial and Workplace mediator. She has particular expertise in Intellectual Property Law and Commercial Law. Dowload Gowri Nanayakkara's
Mediator C.V.

Cathy O’Mahoney

Cathy is an experienced mediator and has been involved in law for over 21 years. She has conducted mediations with a wide range of clients including business and work place disputes. Download Cathy O'Mahoney's Mediator C.V.

Simon Gurr

Simon is an experienced solicitor and has worked as a mediator since 1985. He has dealt with mediations in both commercial matters and private disputes. Download Simon Gurr's Mediator C.V.

Dave Owen

Dave is a chartered surveyor who is also an accredited mediator through ADR Group, specialising in property, construction and boundary disputes. Download Dave Owen's Mediator C.V.

Andrew Johnson

Andrew is a Notary Public and solicitor in Canterbury. He is an accredited mediator and specialises in cross border issues, private international law, wills and probate, mental capacity, court of protection issues, property law, and Spanish law. Download Andrew Johnson's Mediator C.V.

Jeremy Ferris

A former surveyor, Jeremy is a CEDR accredited mediator who has experience as a solicitor in both London and the regions. He has extensive experience of dealing with property related disputes as well as disputes concerning contested trust and probate actions. Download Jeremy's C.V.

Eunice Shang-Simpson 

Eunice is a member of the Ghana Bar, a solicitor-advocate qualified to practice in England and Wales, and an international arbitrator. She is presently a Lecturer Practitioner in Law at Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, UK. She is an Accredited Civil & Commercial Mediator, having trained with the ADR Group in 2020. Download Eunice's CV.

External Mediators are responsible for the accuracy of their profiles.