GRAEME MEW is a barrister, mediator and arbitrator with a transatlantic practice centred in London and Toronto. 

He has conducted over 350 mediations and over 50 arbitrations/hearings as an intermediary in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Uruguay, France and the United States. 

He has appeared as an advocate in courts and before arbitration panels in England, Canada and the United States and has advised in connection with commercial disputes located in Barbados, Hong Kong the Cayman Islands and the Turks & Caicos Islands.

His main areas of practice include civil and commercial litigation, public law, private international law, insurance law (including excess and reinsurance issues), contract and tort law (including personal injury, product liability, property and transportation), sports law, business disputes, professional liability (including liability of hospitals, lawyers, physicians and accountants and related insurance issues) and liability of directors and officers (including related insurance issues).

He has been actively involved in a number of professional organisations in the legal and ADR worlds and has served as the President of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association between 2005 and 2007.

He has written on a diverse range of legal and professional topics and is the author of The Law of Limitations published by Butterworths (Canada) in 1991 and 2004.

PERSONAL   
   
Born in London in 1959.  2 children.  British and Canadian Citizen.  

EDUCATION

B.A. (Honours) Law from Kingston University (formerly Kingston Polytechnic) in 1980 (Law School Prizeman); LL.B. from the University of Windsor (Ontario) in 1986 (Dean’s Honour Roll).

PROFESSIONAL   

Bar of England and Wales (Middle Temple), July 1982; Bar of Ontario, 1987; admitted pro hac vice by the District Court of the US Virgin Islands in 2003.

Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators

CEDR Accredited Mediator (U.K.)

ADR/INTERMEDIARY EXPERIENCE

• Arbitrator, Court of Arbitration for Sport, Lausanne, Switzerland and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (American Arbitration Association), New York.
  
  
• Panel arbitrator and mediator, ADR Chambers, AIDA Reinsurance and Insurance Arbitration Society (ARIAS•U.S.), Sports Resolutions (UK), Sports Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada, ADR Institute of Canada.
  
  
• An experienced neutral in sports disputes including doping cases and assignments involving various national and international sport governing bodies, athletes, coaches and sponsors. 
  
  
• Judicial officer for the International Rugby Board (Dublin, Ireland).  An appeal officer at the Rugby World Cup in Australia (2003) and France (2007).
   
• Specialist Member of The Football Association Judicial Panel
  
  
• Mediator in a wide variety of civil disputes under the mandatory mediation programme of the Ontario Superior Court. 
  
  
• Private mediation and arbitration assignments have included international, commercial, professional partnership, real property, professional liability, environmental, intellectual property, class action, insurance and tort/personal injury matters. 
  
  
• In 2005, appointed by the Regional Senior Justice for the Toronto Region of the Ontario Superior Court to conduct judicial pre-trial settlement conferences for “simplified rules” civil cases.

 
OTHER SPORT-SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE

Former President (in 2000), Secretary (in 1987), Player and Director, Toronto Nomads Rugby Club.  Assistant coach Toronto Nomads Junior Rugby 2000-3.

Member, Anti-Doping Advisory Committee, International Rugby Board, 2000-date .  Served on numerous preliminary review and decision review panels for the International Rugby Board and European Rugby Cup in respect of doping matters. 

Ad hoc and Tournament Judicial Officer/Appeal Committee appointments in discipline and misconduct matters by USA Rugby, Rugby Canada, Rugby World Cup and the International Rugby Board, including USA v France (2004), USA v Wales (2005), British and Irish Lions – New Zealand (2005), IRB Under 21 World Championship – Argentina (2005), Churchill Cup – Ontario (2006, 2008), NA4 - British Columbia and Ohio (2006), USA v Barbados RWCQ (2006), Uruguay v Chile RWCQ (2006), South Africa v England (2007), New Zealand v France (2007), Canada Select v Portugal (2007), IRB Under 20 World Championship – Wales (2008).

Represented and/or advised parties involved in doping cases before the Association of Tennis Professionals, the International Rugby Board and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).  Counsel in court applications for judicial review of sports tribunal decisions.

ADR and legal work in sport has included the following sports: track and field, triathlon, wrestling, judo, swimming, soccer, rugby, ice hockey, paralympic sports, water-polo, basketball, synchronised swimming, karate, tennis, rowing, weight lifting, biathlon, speed skating and skiing.

CLIENTS       

UK and overseas law firms.  Domestic and international insurers including Lloyd’s underwriters, other financial institutions, private individuals, British, Canadian and international businesses.  Local, regional and national governments.  Athletes and sport organisations. 

MEMBERSHIPS   

Law Society of Upper Canada; Canadian Bar Association; Commonwealth Lawyers' Association; Honourable Society of the Middle Temple; International Bar Association; Advocates’ Society; Toronto Lawyers' Association; Medico-Legal Society of Toronto; Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb); Arbitration and Mediation Institute of Ontario; Subscriber, American Arbitration Association; Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR Accredited Mediator); Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association; Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel (US); International Academy of Sportslaw Practitioners and Executives; AIDA Reinsurance & Insurance Arbitration Association Society (AIDA Reinsurance and Insurance Arbitration Society (ARIAS•U.S.).