Practice

Alison Potter practises in a wide range of civil and commercial areas.  Most recently she has been working in the areas of commercial contracts, manufacturing and product development, insurance, construction and planning and environmental law.

Her diverse practice is strengthened by her experience and expertise in the areas of professional negligence, reinsurance, costs, construction, banking and employment.

She has a wide range of advocacy experience both in litigation and arbitration and has also worked as a team member in large commercial and construction disputes.

Commercial

Alison's most recent engagement was as the senior junior in a major Commercial Court case concerning a failed manufacturing partnership relating to an electro-mechanical engineering project and the design and manufacturing processes related to it.  This involved 2 years of detailed involvement in all aspects of the case culminating in a 3 month trial.

Planning

Alison's planning practice has developed from her pro bono work in which she was invited to act in relation to various planning disputes. She has conducted several planning inquiries on behalf of different associations in the south west of England, most notably in Bath and Bristol.

These include:

• 4 week planning inquiry concerning a commercial development in the green belt outside Bath for the Bath Preservation Trust, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and 5 local Parish Councils;
• 10 year planning battle which included 3 public inquiries concerning a gypsy site for the Compton Dando Parish Council;
• Planning inquiry about the development of a microlight site on coastal protection zone for Kingston Seymour Parish Council;
• Representing the Bath Preservation Trust at the Bath and North East Somerset Local Plan Inquiry;
• Representing the Parish Councils Airports Association (PCAA) at the North Somerset Local Plan Inquiry.

She has also undertaken advisory work for the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), the PCAA and her local Parish Council concerning developments, particularly concerning the Green Belt and the development of Bristol Airport.

Most recently, she has advised individual residents and residents' associations in relation to their planning disputes with developers and the local planning authorities. She has found her experience in fighting planning battles in her local area particularly helpful to her professional planning work for both individuals and associations, her experience having clearly shown her that the best armouries in planning battles should include both campaigning and legal weapons.

Mediation

Alison has developed an increasingly successful practice as a mediator. Recent mediations have concerned construction, oil, shares/trusts and professional negligence. The parties involved have ranged from multinational corporations involved in disputes worth many millions to individual clients locked into disputes with their conveyancing solicitors.

She works regularly with an American International Mediator of over 20 years experience.

The mediations in which she has been involved or conducted as sole mediator include:
Construction disputes covering a range of different projects including:

• multi-storey car park, arts centre, market town centre shopping centre, power station, off shore oil rig;
• Commercial disputes concerning accountants' negligence, shareholding and trust issues and the ownership of a company and its shareholding division;
• Solicitors' negligence disputes and conveyancing.

She has written seminar papers concerning the process of mediation and advocacy in mediation which have been presented both in the UK and internationally.

Qualifications

MA (Oxon) Jurisprudence

ADR

Trained Mediator

Public Access

Qualified to undertake Public Access work

This is a summary of Alison Potter's CV. Please contact the clerks for a full version.