Professional background and experience:

Michelle is accredited as an arbitrator with both the Arbitration and Mediation Service of SA (AMSSA) and the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA). She is also a civil and commercial mediator accredited with Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Group UK and DiSAC and is passionate about dispute resolution.

Michelle was an advocate specialising in labour and employment law for 25 years and has recently joined the labour department of Garlicke & Bousfield Cape Attorneys. She has lectured on topics related to High Court practice, appropriate dispute resolution, mediation skills and labour dispute resolution at the Durban School for Legal Practice and is currently a reports editor for the Industrial Law Journal, company secretary for a Norwegian shipping company, registered medical mediator with the South African Medico Legal Association (SAMLA), panellist with Conflict Dynamics and Aequitate Mediation and Dispute Resolution Services and has extensive experience in the mediation and arbitration of labour and civil and commercial disputes.

Michelle believes in the transformative power of constructive engagement in conflict and the importance of bringing matters to a sensible conclusion at the earliest opportunity by focusing on the balancing of interests rather than the assertion of rights.

Mediation experience and style:

Michelle has more than 15 years of experience as a mediator and facilitator, in both the employment and civil and commercial sectors and has mediated family, commercial, school, and corporate governance, medical negligence, personal injury, professional negligence, grievance and workplace conflict disputes.

She was involved in the pro bono mediation project at the Durban Labour Court and has been extensively involved in the Road Accident Fund and Gauteng Health Department pilot projects to contribute to the development of medical mediation in South Africa. She has more recently been involved in the creation of a stakeholders engagement forum with the Ethekweni Municipality, business, and community in the Cornubia industrial precinct in KZN, ADR pilot project at UKZN to introduce the mediation of minor misconduct, grievance and poor performance disputes, and training at UCT in workplace mediation using restorative justice principles.

Her preferred mediation style is facilitative or transformative.

Facilitation experience and style:

Michelle has worked with both small teams and multi-stakeholder forums to facilitate constructive conversations with a view to fostering relationship building and conflict competence.

Chairing enquiries and investigations experience:

Having specialised in labour and employment law for more than 25 years and trained as an arbitrator early on in her career through both AMSSA and AFSA, Michelle has extensive experience in chairing disciplinary enquiries, private arbitrations and appeal hearings and has conducted many workplace investigations. She brings to these processes her experience in appearing as an advocate at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and various Bargaining Councils, Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court and so appreciates and respects the disciplinary process from many perspectives.

Coaching experience and style:

Michelle works with individuals and teams to build an understanding of conflict and how to navigate conflict effectively both in formal mediation processes and informally in the workplace.

Comments from mediation clients:

“I just want to congratulate you on an amazingly run and well controlled mediation, especially given the circumstances thereof.”

“Michelle created an atmosphere of profound respect which, in my view, is the ground of being of any good mediation. It is to be acknowledged that yesterday’s matter comprised some deeply complex aspects for mediation and the way in which you navigated this territory in a deeply grounded and respectful way was a great inspiration.”

“Thank you very much for your gentle touch over the last two days. The interaction has been very beneficial for the team and X.”