SERGE PISAPIA LL.M., C.Med., C.Arb.

I have the honour of being included in a list of 184 individuals revealed by a research from the International Bar Association with clients and peers as being among the world’s leading commercial mediation experts in 2011. This list contains 14 professionals from Canada and 2 from Quebec.

The description of this guide reads as follows:

« The first edition of The International Who’s Who of Commercial Mediation focuses on those who act as mediators in commercial proceedings across a range of different industries. Where possible we have aimed to set commercial arbitration and litigation specialists outside the scope of the research, but in jurisdictions where such levels of  specialisation are not possible the experts we list may also focus their practices in other areas. However, all the nominees selected for inclusion in this publication should be considered the leading experts on commercial mediation in their jurisdictions. The exhaustive research process lasts for six months and is freshly conducted for each volume we publish. This includes comprehensive, independent interview and survey work with general counsel, private practice lawyers and mediators worldwide. The results of which permit us to refine the listing to a selection of 184 Commercial Mediators who, by general agreement, are considered leading authorities in the field. »

Gerald Mc Eniry and myself will pursue our information campaign on Dispute Resolution Boards to the some 80 registered participants from the Montreal chapter of  the construction practice group of the Project Management Institute in Montreal on May 10, 2011. See the announcement.

This presentation follows the ones which we delivered to the Canadian Bar Association, the Institut de médiation et d’arbitrage du Québec (IMAQ), the General Contractors Association  of Quebec and the Canadian Institute.

As evidenced by the upcoming conference to be held in London and organized jointly by the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation (DRBF) and the King’s College in association with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), the Adjudication Society, the Society of Construction Law, FIDIC and the ICC, DRBs are increasingly gaining in popularity amongst  international ADR groups and providers interested in construction dispute resolution.

On March 12 and 13 last, I had the privilege of representing the Institut de médiation et d’arbitrage du Québec at the World Forum of Mediation Centres organized by the International Association of Lawyers (UIA) together with the Hellenic Mediation & Arbitration Centre in Athens. Click here to view the program.

Presided by Thierry Garby and Collin Wall, the forum assembled 131 participants from across the world some of which as representatives of the following ADR centres;

1.        Hellenic Mediation & Arbitration Centre

2.       Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution

3.       International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA)

4.       Association for International Arbitration (AIA)

5.       Concilia ADR (Rome)

6.       Organismo di Conciliazione di Firenze (Florence)

7.       CCOIC from China

8.       Tribunal arbitral de Valencia

9.       Corporate Peacemakers (U.K.)

10.   Croatian Chamber of Commerce

11.   Ministère de l’Économie, des Finances et de l’Industrie (France)

12.   Bucharest Mediation Centre

13.    RAKMO Centre from Slovenia

14.   IMAQ

Ater having had the opportunity of making a presentation of IMAQ to the assembly, I invited its organizers to hold the Fall 2012 forum in Montreal, in association with IMAQ.

Last December, I was part of a group of three trainers who delivered a three-day advanced mediation course to the Centre d’Arbitrage, Médiation et Conciliation de Ouagadougou (CAMC-O) followed by a two-day awareness program directed first at the  lawyers and than the magistrates of Burkina Faso.

This program was organized and sponsored by the Intenational Finance Corporation World Bank Group, further to an international call for tenders for which a partnership constituted of the Institut de médiation et d’arbitrage du Québec (IMAQ), Université de Sherbrooke and Éducadroits International was the succesful bidder.

This was my third such training experience in a West-African country, after Bénin in 2009 and Sénégal in 2008.

For the third time, the Canadian Institute has invited me to be a lecturer at their annual conference on construction claims on April 12, 2011. See program in French.

The purpose of my presentation is to give  a broad outlook of the various methods of prevention and resolution of construction disputes worldwide and to discuss their applicability on Quebec projects.

As clearly outlined in The Construction Industry’s Guide to Dispute Avoidance and Resolution published by the American Association of Arbitration, a whole set of ADR processes, from partnering to dispute boards, mediation and arbitration have been developped to respond to the needs of the actors from this industry for timely and efficient ways to solve disputes which are inevitable on any construction project.

I have been invited to give a presentation on the use of Dispute Review Boards (DRB) for the resolution of contruction disputes at the following events;

• On February 17 at the annual convention of the general constructors association of Quebec, the Corporation des entrepreneurs généraux du Québec (CEGQ) in Montebello. See program.
• On March 16, at the Institut de médiation et d’arbitrage de Québec (IMAQ), Quebec’s principal association of ADR professionals, together with Mr. Gerald Mc Eniry, the representative of the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation (DRBF) in Canada.
• On May 10 to the construction practice group of the Project Management Institute, in Montreal

Even though DRBs have been increasingly popular, for the last 10 years, on all kinds of contruction projects in the US and internationally, few of them have been implemented here in Canada and none in Quebec. See Mr. McEniry’s article

The Canadian Arbitration and Mediation Journal has published my article entitled Quebec’s experience in the implementation of DPR methods in construction work » in its Spring issue of 2010.

This article is a summary of the essay which I submitted to earn my masters degree in ADR (LL.M.) at the Université de Sherbrooke in 2008. It resulted from a comprehensive review of the dispute resolution mechanisms employed at the time for construction works, as reported by all the major players in the industry.

Since then, the Quebec government has legislated to incorporate mediation on all public building projects.

Read the following article published in the Summer 2009 edition of the JAMS Global Construction Solutions newsletter and entitled « Reshaping ADR strategies for today’s global engineering and construction market ».

The authors, Linda DeBene and Michael Timpane, report their findings following a series of roundtables conducted by their JAMS Global Engineering and Construction Group throughout the country and designed to find out directly from industry leaders where and why disputes are arising, how they are currently being managed, and how the recent stimulus package might play out in the construction industry.

The following quotations retained my attention;

• « Most participants have used, and continue to  routinely use, mediation, the bottom line view being that mediation « usually works« . However, even where successful, mediation was viewed as more of a « process » than a single session understood by all to be a one-time attempt to produce global settlement ».
• « What appeared to be of clear import to the varied participants was the ability to solve disputes with rapidity while the construction process is ongoing through the use of dispute review board or single project neutrals ».
• « …a consensus that some type of early, real-time resolution of disputes is going to be a big part of the future of construction dispute resolution..
• « The need for rapid, on-the-spot determinations in commercial and governmental construction projects
  is only to be exacerbated by the possible effects of the federal stimulus package on these matters. All
  predicted that when there is lots of money to spend quickly, an increase in problems and the potential for
  costly disputes will rise exponentially to the speed by which the money has to be spent. A lack of time to
  thoughtfully prepare designs and/or contracts, and little money set aside for real-time dispute resolution, will drive more disputes that long outlive the projects . »

I have had the opportunity to experience firsthand the expertise of the JAMS associates when taught a seminar on complex construction disputes by Bruce Edwards at the Pepperdine University East Coast Professional Training Program, last October. (see previous article on my website)

Last December 3rd, the business section of the Montreal daily La Presse published an interview in which I explained the obvious benefits of mediation, arbitration and other forms of ADR to efficiently resolve business disputes. Read all about it at the following link.

Together with Gerald McEniry, senior consultant at Revay, I will be giving a presentation on Dispute Review Boards which are becoming an increasingly popular mode of resolving construction disputes arising during the project.

As shown on the attached notice, this event, which will  be held in Montreal on March 11 next, is organized jointly by the ADR and construction law sections of the Canadian Bar association, Quebec division.