Peter Smith

Consultancy

Peter has practised law for over 50 years. He was the founding partner of Smith and Partners which he established in 1988.

In 2023, Peter retired as a partner of Smith and Partners and became a consultant to the practice.

As a consultant, Peter continues to give specialist advice to some of the commercial and trust clients of the firm, but is encouraging those clients who still regard him as being “their” solicitor to use the services of the many gifted lawyers that now make up the team at Smith and Partners.

Peter is a negotiator at heart, and over the years has enjoyed nothing more than to help clients negotiate business agreements and settlements of their legal problems.

Mediation

As a negotiator, Peter has always been attracted to the role of mediation as the process for resolving legal disputes that would otherwise end up in Court.
Over 40 years ago, Mediation was made popular by an Australian/New Zealand initiative called “LEADR” (Lawyers Engaged in Alternative Dispute Resolution) which is now known as the Resolution Institute.

Peter is an approved LEADR mediator, having attended training with LEADR in the 1990s.

The LEADR model of mediation is a formal process chaired by a mediator  – which, if conducted properly under the LEADR model of mediation, has a success rate of almost 100%.

Peter has never been part of an unsuccessful mediation. Over the years he has mediated disputes in all areas of law including disputes over legal costs, building and construction law, land disputes, relationship property, trust disputes, disputes over the meaning of contracts and agreements, and disputes over estates.

As a consultant to Smith and Partners, Peter would like nothing more than to spend the bulk of his time as a mediator and looks forward to accepting more appointments as mediator.