RNF Advisory's Connor earns ADR spurs

RNF ADVISORY insolvency practitioner Filippa Connor has become one of the UK’s first IPs to qualify as an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mediator.

Connor, now having earnt her mediator stripes, hopes to utilise her newly found skillset to help her growing band of clients.

Her qualification comes in the wake of UK courts increasingly expecting disputing parties to use ADR, as they are more prone to adjust costs orders to penalise those who “unreasonably” refuse to engage in the process.

As a CEDR-qualified mediator, Connor can now advise on a wide range of commercial and business disputes. Typically, these can include anything from contentious probate to partnership, director and shareholder disputes to trademark infringement and insolvency claims.

Connor, who qualified as an insolvency practitioner in 2000, said the role of mediator is not only “ideal for IPs” but particularly suited to her “collaborative” approach to problem solving.

Connor set up the practice with business partner Ruth Duncan – widely tipped to become IPA president in April 2017 – in December 2013.