Practice Overview
Charlotte Steinfeld LLB LLM (International Commercial Law with Distinction) is a barrister, CEDR accredited commercial mediator and SCMA advanced certified mediation advocate specialising in civil, chancery and commercial disputes. She is Deputy Head of Chambers at 10 King’s Bench Walk, Temple, called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2004 and has over 18 years of mediation advocacy experience.
Charlotte is also one of the elected directors of the Civil Mediation Council (CMC), where she sits on the Government Liaison Working Group. In this guise she assisted with the drafting of ‘A Guide to Civil Mediation’ for the UK government’s website. She also led the CMCs response (jointly with CEDR and CIArb) to the Civil Procedure Rules Committee (CPRC) Consultation on amending the CPR to include ADR, following the seminal decision by the Court of Appeal in Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. Charlotte liaises with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on ADR on behalf of the CMC.
Charlotte chairs the organising committee of the National Mediation Awards, a groundbreaking collaboration between the Civil Mediation Council, College of Mediators and Family Mediation Council and in 2022 introduced for the first time a “Mediation Advocate of the Year” award.
Professional Experience
Charlotte has a practice as a barrister in contentious trusts, wills and probate, commercial and contract, property, landlord and tenant and bankruptcy and insolvency. Her mediation advocacy practice areas mirror her legal practice. She has represented parties at mediation in both two-party and multi-party disputes.
Charlotte has acted as mediation advocate in many different types of disputes at mediation. For example, these have included Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 claims, arguments over the validity of competing Wills, questions over the legitimacy of company officers, TOLATA and property issues, validity of interfaith marriage out of jurisdiction and its effects on intestacy and breach of contract, agency and assignee issues relating to commercial hire equipment. Her clients are individuals and organisations.
Charlotte regularly receives positive feedback from clients. A director of one of the UK’s largest asset finance and leasing companies said: “I believe the best possible result was achieved” at the mediation with the recommendation that Charlotte act in any future cases in that area of dispute.
Charlotte is one of the few (possibly the only) commercial mediator in England to have completed executive education at Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation with Professor Bruce Paton, co-author of seminal negotiation text: Getting to Yes: Negotiating an Agreement Without Giving In. She works with parties and their advisers to support rigorous yet respectful negotiations using the Harvard Framework of Principled Negotiation. When requested she offers training on the Harvard framework, using materials from the Harvard Negotiation Institute.
Charlotte has assisted in the training of junior Magic Circle solicitors at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s London office in mediation advocacy skills. She is a panel judge for the International Negotiation Competition and CEDR National Student Negotiation Competition and enjoys helping the next generation of negotiators hone their skills for the good of all society.
Areas Of Specialism
Boundary Dispute, Company, Commercial, Construction, Asset Finance and Leasing, Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, Landlord and Tenant (commercial and residential), Partnership, Property, Shareholder, Trusts, Wills and Probate.
Charlotte will also accept instructions in Workplace matters.