Current Position & Background
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 85 commercial and civil disputes since 2020 and now mediates around 25 high value cases each year. In the last 18 months she has mediated disputes with a combined value of c.£45 million, and with an average dispute value in excess of £1 million.
Rachael consistently receives excellent client feedback and has been described as “hugely skilful”, “impressive”, “incredible” and “the best mediator I’ve come across in a long time”. 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, and her ability not to give up, even when the parties remain some considerable distance apart.
Rachael is the founder of Squaring Circles, winner of the UK wide National Mediation Awards 2020 Newcomer of the Year. Before becoming a full-time mediator, for 12 years she practised as a dispute resolution solicitor at two of the UK’s most successful premium law firms, representing negotiating parties 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 as a solicitor, Rachael is routinely instructed in a broad range of commercial disputes. She handles disputes involving corporates, insurers, private, public and third sector clients. She has mediated disputes with parties from the UK, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, the USA and Australia.
Rachael is Certified Mediator with the International Mediation Institute (IMI) and the Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) and is a registered civil and commercial mediator with the Civil Mediation Council (CMC) and Scottish Mediation. She is also an alumnus of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and the MLC at the Strauss Institute at the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law.
Rachael was elected to the ADGM Arbitration Centre Panel of Mediators in Abu Dhabi in January 2023, the RICS President’s Panel for mediation in October 2022 and the Scottish Land Commission mediation panel in January 2021.
She also taught negotiation skills on the Online LLM in Dispute Resolution at the University of Aberdeen, a UK top-10 law school, from 2020 to 2023 and is an accredited specialist in Commercial Mediation and Professional Negligence Law by the Law Society of Scotland.
Mediation Style
Rachael’s experience of managing and negotiating a broad range of disputes, from those which have a strong emotional impact, to those where the parties are more commercially driven, enables her to appropriately adapt her mediation style to the needs of the parties, and provide legal or commercial challenge when necessary. Rachael is empathetic, engaging, inquisitive and tenacious. She works hard to put the parties at east, to help them better understand each other, to see things differently, and to become invested in creatively exploring a way forward.
Mediation Experience
Professional negligence
> £8 million professional negligence claim against a firm of solicitors in respect of alleged negligent advice relating to a personal injury claim by two claimants. The dispute involved a very complex factual matrix, disputed matters of law including complex prescription (time bar) and limitation arguments, liability, causation and quantum, and multiple competing expert reports.
c.£2 million professional negligence claim by a national infrastructure company against a firm of solicitors, arising from a series of conveyancing transactions. The dispute involved a complex factual matrix and disputed matters of law including liability, scope of duty, causation, loss of chance, prescription (time bar) and quantum.
c.£900,000 professional negligence claim by an estate owner against a firm of solicitors relating to an agricultural tenancy. The dispute involved a very complex factual matrix and complex disputed matters of law including causation, loss of chance and quantum.
£250,000 professional negligence claim against a firm of solicitors in respect of alleged negligent advice relating to the recoverability of sums due under numerous loan agreements. The dispute involved complex disputed matters of fact and law including liability, causation, prescription (time bar) and quantum.
Construction, energy and infrastructure
A complex 12-party £2.5 million commercial construction dispute between the employer, main-contractor, engineering consultants and sub-contractor and multiple owners of a neighbouring property damaged during the construction of an adjacent building. The dispute involved a very complex factual matrix and disputed matters of fact and law including liability, scope of duty, causation and quantum.
c.£950,000 dispute in respect of the design and construction of a flood alleviation scheme. The dispute involved disputed matters of law including liability, causation and quantum.
c£500,000 breach of contract dispute in respect of a Utilities Agreement between a landlord and tenant of industrial premises.
£450,000 breach of contract dispute between a main contractor and sub-contractor in respect of allegedly defective offshore oil and gas works in the Black Sea.
£200,000 domestic construction dispute between a property developer and homeowner relating to the construction of a new property. Claim for unlawful retention of funds and additional works and counterclaim for professional negligence. The dispute involved numerous competing expert reports, disputed liability, causation and quantum.
Company, director and shareholder
c£1.5 million dispute in respect of the remuneration to be paid to a former director for professional services provided to three companies. Highly emotional dispute with counter allegations including breach of fiduciary duties and non-performance issues.
c£1.4 million claim for breach of warranty and misappropriation of funds between the purchaser and seller.
c.£800,000 breach of trust and shareholder dispute between a father and daughter who had founded a limited company.
c.£400,000 breach of contract and restrictive covenant dispute between a former founding director and the limited company.
c.£400,000 family business dispute between four family members relating to their interests in a limited company. The dispute involved a complex factual matrix and allegations including diverting company money and acting in breach of fiduciary duties and for disputed financial transactions exercised under a power of attorney in respect of a fifth family member.
c.£400,000 dispute between a former director and limited company involving allegations of fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation and breach of fiduciary duties.
A six-figure multi-party director shareholder dispute arising from a failed joint venture. Claims included alleged breaches of fiduciary duties, a shareholders’ agreement and non-disclosure agreements, dishonest assistance and unlawful use of confidential information.
c£365,000 highly contentious tri-party breach of contract and restrictive covenant dispute between two competing employment agencies and the employee.
Insolvency
£1.2 million claim by an insolvency practitioner against a former director of an insolvent company pertaining to numerous alleged breaches of fiduciary duties including false accounting entries and a “sham” sale of the shares in the company to convert a significant debit balance on the director’s loan account into a credit sum due to the director.
c.£300,000 claim by an insolvency practitioner against a former director of an insolvent company pertaining to alleged disposal of assets at undervalue, unexplained payments to the director and associated persons in preference to the general body of creditors and fraudulently claiming a bounce bank loan.
c.£145,000 claim by an insolvency practitioner against a former director of an insolvent company for repayment of director’s loan and alleged unexplained transactions.
c.£100,000 claim by the liquidator of a farming business against a firm of solicitors in respect of alleged negligent advice relating to a conveyancing transaction.
Telecoms
A seven-figure telecoms dispute between a large mobile network operator and site provider in respect of the application of the new Electronic Communication Code to the site provider’s redevelopment plans and the MNO’s paragraph 33 notice.
Rural business
> £12 million family business dispute relating to the farming partnership and wind farm companies and involving complex issues of partnership law.
c.£200,000 professional services dispute arising from a project to develop a large-scale forestry scheme.
A 10-day “project” mediation of a seven-figure partnership dispute between four family members of a farming business, requiring significant process design.
Farming partnership dispute between a husband and wife following the separation of their marriage.
An access dispute between a farming partnership and the neighbouring farm owner in respect of the cost of maintaining and repairing an access road and related repairs over which the neighbouring farm owner had a servitude right of access.
Real Estate
c.£300,000 dispute between two family members in respect of an action for division and sale.
A highly emotional commercial lease / occupancy dispute between a charity and a club, conducted entirely through British Sign Language interpreters.
A highly contentious dispute between a landlord/landowner and a tenant following a community buy-out of an estate in Scotland.
A highly contentious boundary dispute between two neighbours of rural properties.
Intellectual property and technology
A five-figure breach of contract dispute between a rural landowner and a software company in respect of an allegedly defective customer relationship management system.
A highly contentious five-figure breach of contract and intellectual property dispute, including breach of copyright and breach of moral rights, between a freelance graphic designer and a start-up company which had created and designed a new product.
Employment
c£550,000 dispute between a public sector employer and former senior employee for fraud and breach of contract.
c£165,000 employment dispute involving several heads of claim including breach of contract, redundancy payments, underpayment of notice pay and holiday pay, historical claims for underpayment of holiday pay and non-payment of annual leave accrual.
Inheritance and executry
A 2-day and c.£1 million executry and inheritance dispute between family members involving a farming partnership, heritable property interests and farm assets.
A highly emotional £400,000 inheritance dispute between the deceased’s children and former partner in relation to two disputed wills and the transfer of a property involving allegations of undue influence and facility and circumvention.
A highly emotional c.£60,000 dispute between family members who were the executors and sole beneficiaries of their mother’s estate.
Boardroom and workplace
A 3-day mediation between the US board and the CEO of a high profile third sector organisation.
A highly emotional tri-party organisational conflict following cross complaints between the parties, who were elected members of the prestigious organisation. Allegations included sex and disability discrimination and numerous breaches of the organisation’s code of conduct.
A 4-day mediation of a six-party boardroom and employment dispute requiring significant process design. Highly contentious dispute with various strands of conflict at board level and between one board member and an employee.
A workplace dispute between two senior executives in a North African branch of a global manufacturing business.
A highly emotional workplace dispute between two senior colleagues of an international construction and infrastructure company involving allegations of harassment and sexual harassment.
A highly emotional workplace dispute between an employee and their line manager following the conclusion of both a disciplinary process against the employee and thereafter a grievance process against the line manager.
Mediation Education
RICS Accredited Mediator: October 2021
Mediating the Litigated Case at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law: March 2021
Accredited civil and commercial mediator with ADR ODR International: October 2020
Accredited online mediator with ADR ODR International: July 2020
Certified online mediator: June 2020
CEDR Accredited Negotiator: February 2020
Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School: October 2019
Accredited Mediator with Core Solutions: May 2015
Teaching & Mentoring
Rachael is regularly asked to speak at conferences on mediation topics and to deliver mediation training to law firms and in-house legal teams across Scotland and the UK. A full list is available on request.
Conference Presentations
29 March 2023: Scottish Land & Estates Land Managers Training Day 2023 “The role of mediation in helping rural Scotland thrive”.
22 March 2023: Royal Faculty of Procurators Glasgow Civil Law Conference “What do you want to know about mediation?”
8 December 2022: Edinburgh Business School workshop “Mediation for leadership, business strategy and change management”.
12 October 2022: Estate Research “Whether or not there’s a will, there’s a way – mediation for inheritance disputes”.
13/14 September 2022: Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) Insolvency & Restructuring Conference 2022 “Insolvency is not the end…we’ll see you in mediation!”
15 August 2022: Speaker at Law Society of Scotland event “Conversations on Progression – Careers in ADR”.
25 May 2022: Law Society of Scotland Conference on Trusts, Wills and Executry Disputes “Death is not the end…we’ll see you in mediation!”
19 May 2022: Law Society of Scotland inaugural Construction Law Conference “Top ten tips for preparing for multi-party mediation”.
26 April 2022: CIArb Scottish Branch “Adapting the mediation process: one size doesn’t fit all”.
March 2021: Professional Negligence Lawyers Association Annual Conference “Mediation for Professional Negligence Disputes”
16 November 2020: Panel speaker at the Scottish Mediation virtual conference “Mediate 2020”
6 October 2020: Commercial Law Network Annual Conference “Mediation and the modern litigator”
22 September 2020: Law Society of Scotland Law and Technology Conference 2020 – breakout session on mediation and online dispute resolution
Affiliations
Certified Mediator, International Mediation Institute (IMI)
Certified Mediator, Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI)
Accredited Mediator Law Society of Scotland
Scottish Mediation registered mediator
Civil Mediation Council registered mediator
Member (MCIArb) of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
Admitted as a solicitor, the Law Society of Scotland, since October 2007
Contact & References
Code of Conduct
Complaint Process
Professional Indemnity Insurance
IMI Credentials
View all active IMI credentials for Rachael Bicknell.
Public credential
Certified Mediator
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