The increasing burden of pendency of cases upon judiciary has been proving to be a stuck thorn in world’s legal system, and it’s safe to say that India is getting it more severe than anywhere else. The problem might be summed up and the cause would be overpopulation as well as an overly bureaucratic approach as the average court case duration in India is about 1128 days.
Here, ADR methods swoop in to save the day, such as Arbitration and Mediation, which basically privatizes the legal system and helps parties to resolve their disputes easier and faster as compared to if they could’ve gone to court. As in mediation, the case can be resolved in days, if not hours, which saves not only time but financial resources for all the parties involved.
Unfortunately, the scope of ADR is very limited and widely unrecognized in India, resulting in failure by the populace to harvest the fruits, ADR methods provide. Such lack of awareness can be found due to the lack of lawyers’ willingness to counsel their party in favor of ADR, as it can be time and money-saving, but would be bad for lawyers’ business.
Back in 2020, when lockdown initiated, the problem found its way towards a young law student in New Delhi, Param Bhamra, who along with his batch mates, Aditya Mathur and Garima Rana, initated a learning platform named “MediateGuru” which focuses on grooming law students from early in their career, as one of the problem was that law student’s had little to no knowledge of ADR in their law schools, as the subject was usually brushed away.
Objective of MediateGuru was to provide excellent lecture series from Top ADR professional from across the world, to young law students, in order to make them aware on its benefits and guide on prospective career paths. MediateGuru got recognition and support from industry leaders such as Mr. Andrew Miller (Queen’s Counsel, United Kingdom), Ms. Ana Sambold (Leading Arbitrator, United States), Ms. Amanda J. Lee (Founder of Careers in Arbitration), Ms. Kathleen Ruane Leedy (Mediator, United States), Dr. Ashu Dhiman (Asst. Prof at VSLLS, VIPS), Ms. Maureen Erickson Robertshaw (Mediator, United States), Ms. Reshma Oogorah (International Arbitrator, UAE), Ms. Svetlana Sergeyva (Vice-President of Ukrainian Academy of Mediation, Ukraine) and many more.
With the help of such distinguished personalities, MediateGuru found itself as one of leading ADR organization working on a global level, far above from what the founders’ thought in the beginning, when launched. After reaching at such heights, the responsibility of making ADR more prominent and easily accessible becomes a duty, and with that sense of duty, MediateGuru launched many new programs such as International Mediation and Arbitration competition, in which students get to participate with students from across the world and the event was again judged with distinguished personalities from around the world, giving students more exposure to ADR and real life experience on working of the same, the Finals of which was judged was Dr. Kabir Duggal (Arbitrator and Lecturer at Columbia Law School), Ms. Amanda J. Lee (Founder of Careers in Arbitration) and Ms. Reshma Oogorah (Founding Partner at Niyom Legal and International Arbitrator)
MediateGuru receives support from around the world with its presence in over 120 countries and expert advisors from over 30 countries, which regularly advices the management on new ways to excite and motivate young law students into opting ADR as a career. Such as introduction of new webinar on Metaverse & Dispute Resolution, which is relatively new and unheard area of ADR as of now.
Recently MediateGuru is conducting it’s 2nd Edition of Virtual International Mediation Competition, which saw 48+ teams participating across the world, and have Judges from all around the globe and also launched 1st Virtual International Negotiation Competition 2022 and 2nd International Arbitration Moot 2022 to be conducted throughout the year, providing a much needed exposure to young law students.
Founders of MediateGuru, works extensively towards creation of content and study material in area of ADR with series of free blogs and book publication on ADR which gets Edited by industry leaders and made available for anyone who requires. MediateGuru is always supportive of the Universities and Institutes organizing various types of competitions such as Moot Court Competitions, Mediation Tournaments or Arbitration Competitions etc. and supports such competitions in order to increase legal awareness among students while enhancing debating, mooting and mediating skills, which will eventually shape everyone’s collective futures. For students to learn as much as possible, MediateGuru focuses on skill and student oriented competitions. In this spirit, MediateGuru has previously collaborated with leading Indian Universities such as National Law School of India University (Bangalore), Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University (Lucknow) and Christ (Deemed to be University) (Bangalore) and is currently collaborating with many more universities and institutes to further this objective.
Founders of MediateGuru believes that ADR is a way forward and future of the legal world as it provides for more win-win situation, as opposed to traditional win-lose approach in courts. Ever since MediateGuru commenced its operations, the legal world has seen a boom in ADR awareness with many new organization opening up focusing on ADR as well as universities focusing on International perspectives of ADR even Bar council of India introduced mandatory subject of Mediation in law schools and Government of India, providing Mediation Bill in parliament. We have come a long way, with a long way to still go.
