Geoff Sharp is a commercial mediator working in all the main centres in New Zealand and also more recently establishing an as needed presence in Sydney.
He is only the third mediator (and first New Zealand mediator) to be honoured as a LEADR Fellow and is the first Australasian to be elected to the International Academy of Mediators (USA).
Known as a mediator who can connect with parties in conflict, Geoff has been engaged by almost every New Zealand law firm dealing with contentious matters at one time or another as well as many of New Zealand’s leading commercial and industrial companies together with government agencies and related organisations.
Acknowledged as one of the pioneers of New Zealand mediation, Geoff was invited to join the visiting faculty of California’s Pepperdine University Law School in 2008 as part of its Annual Summer Professional Skills Programme for Mediators.
Combining a busy commercial practice with academic life, Geoff has also participated in Bond University’s Distinguished Practitioner in Residence program and is a Vice-Chair of the Independent Standards Commission of the International Mediation Institute in the Hague currently setting global mediator credentialing standards.
In 2009 Geoff was invited to join the Advisory Board of Singapore Management University’s newly founded Centre for Dispute Resolution located in SMU’s School of Law in downtown Singapore.
Geoff remains as a barrister admitted to the New Zealand Bar having a Bachelor of Laws from Victoria University and a Diploma in Business Studies (Dispute Resolution) from Massey University, and is an accredited mediator in Australia under the Australian National Mediator Standards and in New Zealand he is on the advanced mediation panels of both LEADR (Adv.M.LEADR) and the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand (AAMINZ) and is a member of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre’s panel of accredited mediators. Geoff has trained mediators and lawyers in New Zealand, Australia, USA, Malaysia and Thailand and has consulted widely to the New Zealand Government on aspects of public sector mediation, including being engaged by government to establish the Weathertight Mediation Panel for the Department of Building and Housing in response to NZ’s leaky building crisis.
Prior to committing to a full-time mediation practice a decade ago, Geoff was a litigation partner at Bell Gully, one of New Zealand’s largest national commercial law firms, where he spent 15 enjoyable years. Before that he spent his early career at Mallesons (Melbourne) where he was admitted to the High Court and Federal Court of Australia and Supreme Court of Victoria.
