Dr. Lesley Allport

Dr Lesley Allport has a long career in mediation spanning the last 27 years. Working initially as a family mediator in the 1980’s, she has been involved developing new areas of practice, particularly in the context of Special Educational Needs and Disability Conciliation. She mediates conflicts within families, workplace disputes, has experience in community mediation and is trained to mediate in cross border family disputes and parental child abduction cases.

Lesley began training mediators 18 years ago. She delivers foundation courses in several contexts as well as training for supervisors, mediators working directly with children and general continuing professional development. She has a keen interest in developing professional standards. She is currently Vice Chair of the College of Mediators and chairs the Professional Standards Committee. She also sits on the editorial board of the new College journal “Mediation: Theory and Practice”.

Lesley also has an academic interest in mediation. In 2005 she completed a European Masters’ Degree in Mediation, as part of which she developed a model of supervision specific to mediation. In 2016 she successfully completed her PhD at the Birmingham Law School where she was examining the comparative growth of mediation, identifying similarities and differences of practice across a number of contexts of mediation delivery.