The Adjudicators

The following individuals are the CISAS adjudicators. They handle all CISAS cases independently and impartially.

Mair Coombes Davies - Head of the Panel of Adjudicators

Mair is the Head of the Panel of Independent Adjudicators. After receiving degrees from the University of Wales, including a PhD in law, Mair worked as a barrister specialising in disputes, both in and out of court. To date Mair has conducted many hundreds of separate arbitrations, adjudications and mediations and is responsible for several books and articles on this subject including the best selling, 'Avoiding Claims'. Over the period 2000-2002 Mair was a member of the National Council of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and she is also the chairman of the Welsh branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Mair is currently a member of several adjudication and arbitration panels including those of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. In 2002 Mair became an appointed arbitrator to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Welsh Assembly Government.

Stephen Bate FCIArb

Stephen is a practising barrister at 5RB. His background is in Chancery and Common law work, specialising in media and entertainment law for which he is highly recommended in both Chambers Legal Directory and the Legal 500. With over 20 years experience in advisory work and litigation, Stephen has a commitment to ADR. He is a Chartered Arbitrator and an accredited and registered mediator, on the Select and Direct mediation panels operated by CEDR. He is one of the experts appointed by Nominet to determine disputes over .uk domain registrations, was a Legal Assessor to the Disciplinary Panel of the Jockey Club for some years and is now a member of the Licensing Committee of the British Horseracing Association. 

Kevin Beach LLB FCIArb

Kevin obtained a law degree from London University and qualified as a solicitor in 1976. He has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators since 1992 and a Deputy District Judge (Civil) since 1993. Having run a commercial and private client law firm for 20 years until 1999 he now practises on his own account, focusing on commercial agreements and litigation. He undertakes a variety of arbitration work on reference from trade associations and the President of the Law Society, including computer and internet disputes. He was one of the first tranche of arbitrators to be approved by the Law Society and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors for nomination on Court-appointed terms in commercial leasehold disputes under Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.

Mark Dixon

Mark initially trained and qualified as a chartered quantity surveyor before specialising in contract advisory and dispute resolution services. He holds a first class honours degree in quantity surveying and post graduate diploma in arbitration and is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a Fellow of Association of Cost Engineers.

Mark is a member of various arbitration and adjudication panels including those administered by IDRS Ltd, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Royal Institute of British Architects, Construction Industry Council and Association of Independent Construction Adjudicators.

Ike Ehiribe FCIArb, FSIArb, QDR

Ike obtained his law degree from the University of Lagos. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1982 and subsequently called to the English Bar in 1996. He practices extensively as a Barrister, Arbitrator and Accredited Mediator with a particular bias for Intellectual Property (Copyright and Trademarks) and IT/ Communications disputes. He has been on the Panel of Neutrals of the W.I.P.O. Arbitration and Mediation Centre in Geneva since 1994. Ike is also a member of a number of Arbitration and Mediation Panels of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Academy of Experts in London. He also sits as an Adjudicator on the Disciplinary Tribunals of a number of professional bodies.

As a Part - time lecturer, he teaches International and Comparative Commercial Arbitration on the LLM External Programme of the University of London. He is also an approved Tutor of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

David Gwilym Evans MA CEng FICE FIHT FCIArb

David read mechanical sciences and law at Cambridge and then practiced as a chartered engineer for over 40 years. He was a departmental head for 10 years with corporate responsibilities, during which time there were many and various developments in communications throughout the organisation. He has held office as Treasurer and Chairman of the Wales Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Vice-President of the County Surveyors Society, and Advisor to the Welsh Counties Committee and other local authority groupings on both sides of the Severn Estuary. He commenced his career in alternative dispute resolution over 30 years ago and has been appointed to determine more than 600 professional and consumer disputes.

David Griffiths

David is a barrister who works in the areas of commercial litigation, construction disputes and personal injury. David first qualified as a mechanical engineer but, gradually, his career moved towards the commercial sector and he consequently undertook a Masters Degree in Business Administration at the Sheffield Business School.

David is also a Chartered Arbitrator and accredited mediator and has experience of all aspects of settling disputes. These include arbitrations undertaken under the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Consumer Arbitration Schemes. David has also been appointed the Chairman of a Football League Commission.

David is approved as a tutor by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Jane Irvine LLM FRICS FCIArb

Jane Irvine practised as a chartered surveyor for 16 years before re-qualifying to act as a chartered arbitrator and accredited mediator. She was lay inspector within HM Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland from 2001 until 2004. In this capacity she inspected the eight Scottish police forces, and examined handling of complaints lodged against the police in Scotland. She then chaired a working group for the Justice Minister reviewing legislation governing police complaint and conduct issues through all ranks from police constable to chief constable in preparation for the new independent police complaint commission.

Jane has provided arbitration and adjudication decisions and mediation services to resolve disputes about a range of services including holidays, funerals, mobile phone and internet, surveying and financial services. Jane was appointed as the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman in April 2006 and will be the Ombudsman for 2 years or until the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act is implemented.

Mark McGeoch DIP Arb, FRICS, FCIArb

Mark is a Chartered Quantity-Surveyor who specialised in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering services. This has included setting up, managing and agreeing contracts and accounts with communications contractors and suppliers. Mark now works full time dealing with disputes in the Domestic and International construction and energy sectors.

Mark has trained as a Construction Adjudicator and also receives appointments as a Chartered Arbitrator and Mediator. He has extensive experience in all aspects of settling disputes, including many consumer related matters. Mark is a member of several Arbitration and Mediation panels including those of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution , the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and TeCSA.

Dr David Sharp

Dr David Sharp is an IT, telecoms, electronics and project management specialist. He provides independent commercial and technical advice to commercial enterprises, private equity investors and not-for-profit organisations. He is experienced in helping organisations and individuals to resolve disputes through alternative methods of dispute resolution, such as arbitration, adjudication, mediation and expert determination. He is a Chartered Arbitrator, Accredited Mediator and experienced Expert Witness. He is a Chartered Engineer and Member of the British Computer Society, the Institute of Engineering and Technology and the Society for Computers and Law. He holds a Doctorate in Computing and a Masters in Business Administration with Distinction from Imperial College, London. He graduated from King’s College, Cambridge with First Class Honours in Electrical Sciences. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Richard Stephens

Richard read law at Cambridge and subsequently qualified as a barrister before re-qualifying as a solicitor. Richard has worked in and for the technology industry for nearly 25 years, and during that period has spent most of his time involved in dispute resolution, often of technically highly complex cases, as well as of commercial disputes. As a result, Richard has a huge amount of experience in litigation, arbitration and expert determination. Richard was a partner in two City of London law firms before setting up his own practice in 2004, again focusing on the technology industry, providing assistance in transactional work, often involving a contentious element, such as in re-negotiating outsourcing contracts, but also assisting in cases where the parties are seeking to avoid disputes by negotiation or mediation.

Described by Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession as “good news in the most complex of cases” and a “leader in his field”, Richard is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and a registered mediator with CEDR, where he is on their specialist panel dealing with technology and intellectual property cases.