Elizabeth Birch is accredited as a mediator by both the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) and the British Academy of Experts (QDR), a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and Chartered Arbitrator. She founded ACI (A Commercial Initiative for Dispute Resolution) based in London in 1997. She is a member of the Lloyd's Arbitration Scheme Panel and a panel member for both mediation and arbitration with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She is on the CPR New York Panel for distinguished international arbitrators and mediators and a fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, California (IAM).
Elizabeth was one of the first members of the English commercial Bar to become accredited as a mediator, in 1995, and has since sat as mediator in a substantial number of commercial disputes including high value, technical, multi-party and international cases. She also frequently sits as arbitrator in commercial and international disputes within her areas of expertise.
She was a member of both the first ADR Commercial Court Working Party chaired by Mr Justice Colman into the use of mediation and early neutral evaluation in the Commercial Court, which led to the early Commercial Court Practice Directions on ADR, and the ADR Service Providers Association working party, chaired by Sir Brian Neill, which led to the creation of the Civil Mediation Council in London. She is also a member of the Bar Council ADR Committee, the Bar Council Arbitration Committee, the British Maritime Law Association, the LMAA and the CIArb Arbitration ClubÂ’s Maritime and Oil & Gas Branches.
Elizabeth has been recommended for ADR in every edition of Chambers & PartnersÂ’ Directory since 1998-1999 and was named as one of the top ten mediators in the UK in a survey carried out by "In Brief" journal in July 2002.
