I have engaged Deborah Clapshaw as a mediator for over 15 years. Deborah is an outstanding Mediator. She gets to grips with the key issues quickly, thinks outside the box, has excellent communications skills (especially with difficult people) and, put simply, she gets the job done. Clients are always delighted with her and with outcomes at mediations where Deborah is involved.

Lawyer.

Navigating my way through a business partnership has had many highlights as well as challenges. Working with Deb has given both my business partner and myself the clarity, direction and strength we knew we needed but could not resolve on our own. Feeling safe enough to have tough conversations was essential for me. After each session I came out feeling so much lighter with the feeling of 'we can do this’. Thanks so much Deb for allowing a safe place for honesty and providing clear guidance and support to move forward.

I have seen Deborah as a mediator for about 10 years. She is extremely focused on how best to bring the matter to a settlement. Deborah brings a huge array of mediation and interpersonal skills to the table that facilitate a mediation and align peoples' interests. She is focused on finding common ground, preserving relationships and how best to overcome problems. I find Deborah to be extremely hard-working, knowledgeable, sincere and genuinely interested in the mana of everyone in the room. I would sincerely recommend Deborah for any type of mediation.

Company Director.

Deborah, with her calm, supportive and reasoned manner managed to bring a seemingly intractable issue to an agreement that all parties could be satisfied with. She teased out the most contentious issues and assisted all parties to work through them.

Deborah did an excellent job in facilitating an extremely difficult conflict situation. We had a positive outcome directed by her calm and forthright approach. We would highly recommend Deborah for any business or personal dispute.

Company Director.

Ms Clapshaw is astute and attentive with both eyes on the big picture. She facilitates a fair and focused forum to inspire practical outcomes that all sides can live with... She has great energy and keeps the ball in the air when the parties stand still.

I recently had cause to avail myself of Deborah’s mediation services. I was struggling working with a client who was stonewalling my efforts to navigate a complex issue and it was going legal, ironically the client suggested mediation. I was impressed with Deborah’s ability to simplify complex matters, the upshot was that Deborah was able to help the client understand and accept our position where I was unable to and we appear to have avoided an expensive legal process. I am happy to recommend Deborah’s services.

At no time did Deborah show bias or impatience. To the contrary she allowed everyone to be heard, listened attentively and in a timely and skillful way asked questions or directed discussion that enabled the parties to better understand various points of view that ultimately led to a settlement being reached. Deborah was quick to assimilate the key issues and was therefore able to assist the parties draw up an agreement and settlement of the matters between them. I was most impressed with her skills, judgement and empathy with all participants.

During the mediation process, Deborah has used a variety of techniques to ensure a successful resolution. These techniques have included cajoling, refocusing on issues, outlining economic arguments and describing legal and technical uncertainties. Throughout the mediation process, she has always managed the emotional aspects, such that all parties are able to maintain dignity and a sense of self.

Deborah is a very competent Mediator. She has a rare mix of being able to work out the legal and technical issues in the case at the same time as being able to support the parties, who are often in an emotional and vulnerable state. I highly recommend Deborah as a Mediator.

With Deborah’s considerable assistance and skill, we managed to achieve an excellent outcome for both parties where all matters were resolved and the parties continued to enjoy their franchising arrangements.

David Clark - Partner, Wilson McKay, Auckland

In my opinion, Deborah has every attribute that a highly skilled mediator needs. Things had been fraught between my business partner and I for a while, however Deborah managed to grasp the situation quickly and with her expert guidance kept everything balanced and on track to guide us through a very tricky conversation. After two sessions, Deborah has helped us find a positive way forward which is worth its weight in gold!

Deborah has the ability to understand complex issues and structure a process that enables the issues to be fully discussed in a systematic and efficient manner.

Thank you so much for your time and expert facilitation… I appreciated your efforts to leverage considerations for both parties.

It has been peaceful since the mediation meeting and we trust this will move forward in a positive way. We could not have accomplished this without your help.

I would be very happy to be a referee for you. I can speak very positively of your skills, particularly after that last mediation, in which you managed a minor miracle.

Thank you for your excellent help yesterday. That was definitely quite a tricky and sensitive case. And thanks for managing all those (online) room changes so well, it ran very seamlessly.

You are the consummate professional.