As a full-time family mediator who is also been a family solicitor for 23 years, I recognise the important roles that the family mediator AND family solicitor have in working together as a lawyer-supported mediation team, to support the separating couple to reach their own agreements in mediation.

As with any dispute resolution model, the key is HOW these professionals work together effectively and efficiently in a totally client focused away, motivating, empowering and supporting the separating couple to work together in what is often a tough emotional environment.

In such an environment, the professionals need to be very clear about their respective roles in supporting the separating couple and make every attempt to keep their clients costs to an absolute minimum.

When I first see a client who is considering and exploring the prospect of using mediation to sort out their finances and future child arrangements following their separation, I address at the earliest opportunity, when and whether they also need legal advice and support.

In most cases, having tried a number of alternative approaches, where there are less than straightforward financial matters to sort out, I recommend that my mediation client arranges a short appointment with a solicitor, who has also been trained in mediation (even if they are not practicing or accredited mediators) and fully understands the intricacies of the mediation process and the kind of mediation environment within which the client will be working.

The primary purpose of this first meeting with the solicitor is to give the clients the reassurance and confidence of having an appropriate family solicitor on their mediation support team to advise them, when necessary and help them with paperwork and obtaining a financial consent order from the court, at the end of the mediation process.

With the family mediator, separating couple and family solicitors working together in a mutually supportive way, in support of their clients, focused on the overriding purpose of motivating, empowering and supporting their mutual clients to reach their own agreements, it dramatically increases the chances of the separating couple reaching a successful outcome, saving themselves many thousands of pounds and the ongoing trauma of having to manage a future relationship full of unresolved conflict.