Lisa Lingwood
B.L., B.C.L., B.A. (Hons).
Lisa Lingwood: Mediator and Facilitator
Lisa is a qualified barrister and accredited mediator and facilitator with over a decade's experience helping private individuals, families and businesses resolve disputes and plan ahead.
Her mediation and facilitation practice spans all matters in:
Family – Workplace – Succession Planning – Interpersonal Relationships
These areas all share the same underlying challenge, people who need to keep a relationship intact, or end one well, while under emotional and financial pressure.
It's this common thread that lets Lisa move fluidly between a separating couple, a workplace grievance, an interpersonal dispute or a family navigating a parent's care needs, bringing the same rigorous, interest-based approach to each.
Facilitation: planning ahead
Alongside mediation, Lisa facilitates succession planning for families and small family businesses. Facilitation does not require a dispute. It is an opportunity to sit down with a neutral third party to look at options, create a road map for what comes next, and understand what needs to be considered before making any decisions. Lisa guides the conversation; the decisions remain yours.
As a neutral facilitator, she does not advise any party.
Her legal grounding means she understands not just how to facilitate a conversation, but what a workable, durable agreement or plan needs to look like: legally, practically, and emotionally. Clients and referring solicitors alike return to Lisa for her ability to cut through conflict with clarity, discretion, and a high rate of successful resolution.
Lisa is a Certified Mediator and board member of IPMO, the Irish Professional Mediators' Organisation. She is a qualified barrister through King's Inns, Dublin, and practiced at the Bar for more than a decade, specialising in Family Law and Employment Law.
Lisa also holds a Bachelor of Common Law degree and a Bachelor of Arts (Joint Honours) degree from University College Cork. She also holds a Train the Trainer qualification, has lectured in law and regularly delivers training on using mediation effectively in acrimonious disputes.
Lisa’s Qualifications
Lisa qualified as a Barrister-at-Law at Kings Inns. She has a Bachelor of Common Law and a Bachelor of Arts (Joint Honours) from University College Cork, a Diploma in Arts (Psychology & Sociology) from University College Cork
She also has qualification in Training Delivery and Evaluation – QQI Level 6
Lisa’s Affiliations
Lisa is an accredited Member of the Irish Profesional Mediators' Organisation (IPMO) and a member of Elder Mediation International
Workplace Mediation and Facilitation
Unresolved conflict can have far-reaching consequences in a workplace.
It is financially very costly, particularly if the matter winds up before the courts. But it is also expensive in many other ways.
It is time-consuming taking up many hours of a HR managers or employers time which could be spent elsewhere.
It can consume staff – disputes can be likened to ripples on a pond after a stone has been thrown into calm waters. At the centre are the disputants and as the dispute escalates, its effects are the ripples, spreading outwards and involving more staff and creating further disruption.
It can impact upon employee performance and can lead to absenteeism.
In more extreme cases it can affect brand reputation, particularly if the dispute goes to court or becomes know in the public domain.
Mediation Offers:
Cost Effective – mediation costs far less than litigation
Expedient – once a mediator is contacted, mediation can begin almost immediately
Flexible – mediation is designed to meet the needs of the participants and find the best possible solution that represents their interests
Confidential – all mediations are confidential and anything that is said during the mediation by any party is strictly confidential and cannot be used in any other proceedings.
Solutions – mediation does not seek to find fault but find practical, realistic, working solutions.
Organisational Change – in many organisations if something goes wrong, the blame game is played. A culprit is found and held responsible for the mistake. However, it really should not end there. When a problem arises is should be an opportunity for change for the better. A chance to examine what went wrong and how we can all learn from the mistake and what improvements can be implemented.
Creating a culture of blame creates tension and stress and leads to denials of any wrongdoing for fear of retribution.
That is why, in many instances, rather than launching a workplace investigation or a tribunal of inquiry, a mediation meeting might be more suitable and less stressful and most likely less expensive.
The most common areas of workplace conflict arise from issues surrounding bullying and harassment, grievance matters and performance reviews. It is essential that companies have policies and procedures in place to deal with these matters and these policies should include an opportunity for mediation.
Elder Mediation
It is never easy to talk about getting older and the challenges it can bring for individuals and their families.
This is where Elder Mediation can really help as it is an opportunity for parties directly affected by the decisions that need to be made to explore possibilities and reality-test decisions.
In effect, it is future planning for all the family as it offers a framework for the older person and their families to have discussions and to make informed decisions about their care and their future with the help of a trained professional.
Workplace Mediation
Mediation has become an indispensable tool in dealing with workplace disputes. Without intervention, conflict can be very costly, very time consuming and potentially damaging. Mediation offers the chance to seek resolution in an informal and confidential manner by focusing on finding solutions in each individual case.
Elder Mediation
Elder Mediation is future planning for all the family, while putting the elder person(s) to the fore of the conversation. Talking about aging is never easy but having that conversation with the help of a trained mediator reduces uncertainty, confusion, tension and importantly, reduces the potential for family fallouts or disputes.
Family Mediation
The breakup of a relationship is never easy, and it is understandably a process that many people find difficult to navigate. Every situation is unique and, regardless of whether parties are married, cohabitating, or heterosexual or same-sex couples, mediation is worth considering as it allows people to focus on finding the best solution to their own situation.