James Pirrie

James began his mediation career in the late 1980s, practicing at the Institute of Family Therapy, alongside Dominic Raeside.  He is accredited and qualified in child inclusive mediation and in commercial & hybrid mediation. He is also a qualified collaborative lawyer and finance and child arbitrator which adds depth to his offering. James is available to conduct mediations either online or in person and offers both sole and co-mediation.

James is ranked as a Leading Individual for family mediation by Legal 500 2024 and 2023, noting that “James is an outstanding mediator – he is my first port of call recommendation. He is very successful at getting to the heart of a case and goes the extra mile to assist clients to settle” and “James has huge amounts of energy! Indefatigable – which in the context of working in a mediation is a key requirement. He is very personable- clients love him and more importantly they trust his input.” The leading legal directories Chambers UK, Chambers HNW and The Legal 500 UK have all listed James as a top ranked, leading individual in the field of family mediation for many years.

Chambers HNW have ranked James as a leading family mediator for several years noting: “With his mind like a razor, he will see through to what the next sensible step to take is. He will enable people to see that they are in control of their lives; he is very facilitative” and “He is hugely, hugely experienced and massively talented. He has got a supremely industrious brain and is always thinking of creative solutions.” Chambers HNW 2023 comments that ““James is incredibly bright. He thinks outside of the box in terms of finding solutions, and is very committed to his practice.”

James’ offering was acknowledged  by Mostyn J in his judgment TW v TM [2015].

James has been closely involved with mediation practice and writes and presents for other mediators.  He is a member of the Certainty Project, been involved with the Family Solutions Group which authored “What About Me” in November 2020 and has developed med-2-arb as a clearer process to provide clients with arbitral determination of residue points from their mediations.

James’ mediation work runs across all sorts of family law matters and might include:

• separating and coming-together couples (mediating their cohabitation or pre-nuptial agreement)
• substantial asset cases to high-needs & scant-resources
• parenting questions for young and old
• married and never married
• cultural and identity issues.

Some specific examples of James’ mediation cases are:

• Acting as a mediator in a wide range of disputes from matters involving substantial financial issues between city couples to the equally challenging high-needs & scant-resources cases. James was identified as an acknowledged expert by Mostyn J in his judgment TW v TM [2015] when recommending mediation in a never-married finance case.
• James mediated between parents who had not married, both of whom were working, in a case concerning parenting issues which involved sensitive cultural and identity issues. The key focus of the mediation was around role models for the child.
• James advised on a financial and parenting mediation with challenging financial issues where there was insufficient capital to generate the twin owner-occupier homes which the couple aspired to.
• James undertook a hybrid-style mediation. The case involved the twin challenges of securing the father’s involvement in the child’s life whilst providing for flexible and appropriate outcomes for this international family.
• James worked with a couple who were due to start living together. During the mediation meetings the couple settled on the terms of their cohabitation agreement and the terms of their complementary wills.