Michel Kallipetis KC

Michel Kallipetis KC is one of England's most experienced commercial mediators, based in London and associated with the International Dispute Resolution Centre. He was recognised as Commercial Mediation Expert of the Year in England at the 2024 Corporate INTL Global Awards, an accolade that reflects a mediation career spanning many hundreds of civil and commercial disputes and a standing built over decades at the top of the profession.

Before devoting himself exclusively to mediation, Michel Kallipetis practised for some forty years as a barrister in general commercial, professional negligence and employment work, and served for many years as a recorder and deputy High Court judge sitting in the Queen's Bench, Chancery and Technology and Construction jurisdictions. He is a former head of Littleton Chambers. This combination of advocacy and judicial experience gives him an unusually rounded understanding of how disputes are argued, assessed and decided, insight he brings to bear in helping parties reach settlement.

He has conducted well over a thousand mediations in the United Kingdom and abroad and became exclusively a mediator in 2006, co-founding Independent Mediators in that year. The disputes he handles span a wide range, including partnership, banking, insurance and reinsurance, all areas of employment, professional and medical negligence, personal injury, and construction and engineering, as well as substantial commercial claims running to many millions of pounds. His practice includes multi-party and international matters, and he sits on mediation panels in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, reflecting the international reach of his work.

Michel Kallipetis holds a series of senior professional appointments and distinctions. He is a mediation fellow and chartered arbitrator of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a distinguished fellow and past president of the International Academy of Mediators, and a certified mediator of the International Mediation Institute. He was the first chairman of the England and Wales Bar Council's alternative dispute resolution committee and sat on the working party that drafted the European code of conduct for mediators, contributions that mark his role in shaping the practice of mediation itself. He also serves on the Sport Resolutions panel.

His work has attracted sustained recognition from the legal directories, where he is ranked in the top tier for mediation, and he has received a number of awards over his career, including honours from the international mediation community acknowledging both his individual matters and his contribution to the field as a whole. Parties and their advisers value his authority, his grasp of complex commercial issues and his ability to move entrenched positions towards resolution.

The Corporate INTL Global Awards recognise leading advisers and experts across jurisdictions and practice areas, drawing on research into the market to identify those demonstrating particular distinction in their field. The 2024 award to Michel Kallipetis KC as Commercial Mediation Expert of the Year in England places him among the foremost names in English commercial mediation, reflecting a career that has helped define modern mediation practice in this country and beyond.