John Brand

John Brand is a lawyer, retired consultant and ADR specialist at Bowmans in South Africa, mediator, trainer, and retired director and shareholder of Conflict Dynamics. He serves on the ADR Advisory Committee of the South African Law Reform Commission. John is an IMI Certified Mediator and a member of IMI’s Independent Standards Commission and a CEDR-accredited mediator. He has specialised in dispute resolution and the training of negotiators, mediators, and arbitrators, has written extensively in journals and other publications, and co-authored “Commercial Mediation – a User’s Guide” and “Labour Dispute Resolution” both published by Juta. Over the past 30 years, he has arbitrated and mediated many large commercial and employment disputes and he regularly facilitated negotiation, strategic planning, and transformation processes. He was a member of the team of international experts appointed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to design mediation training for developing countries and he regularly trained mediators from countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America. The ILO also commissioned John to design training material and to train parties and trainers from countries across the world in mutual gain negotiation. This training material has been translated into French, Portuguese, and Arabic and is used extensively throughout the world.

Chris Todd

Chris Todd is an Attorney and Partner at the law firm Bowmans.  He was admitted to practice as an Attorney in 1996, after completing degrees at the University of Cape Town, and Oxford University. 

During his career, Chris has focused his practice on Employment Law and Employee Benefits, Investigations, and Public Law Dispute Resolution. For two years he practised in a corporate mergers and acquisitions team, where he was responsible for a variety of transactions for a parastatal transport company involving the disposal of non-core businesses, in the mining industry in the disposal of shares in new and mature mining ventures, and in disposals of the South African businesses of multinational corporations as part of global transactions. He subsequently returned to full-time employment and public law practice combining negotiation and ADR with policy and advisory work in these areas.

In the course of his dispute resolution practice Chris has represented local government entities in a lengthy process of public sector pension fund restructuring which involved several years of complex negotiation, litigation and ADR; and in employment litigation at various levels including public and private employment law tribunals, in the Labour Court, Labour Appeal Court and Constitutional Court. Chris has also represented a range of public sector clients in boardroom or senior executive disputes and in related investigation, mediation or facilitation processes; and, pro bono, in public interest matters for NPO clients.

Chris co-authored Commercial Mediation, a User’s Guide, Juta, 2012 (with John Brand and Felicity Steadman) (second edition published in 2016).  He is also the author or co-author of three books on different areas of Employment Law (Business Transfers and Employment Rights in South Africa, Lexis Nexis, with du Toit & Bosch; Collective Bargaining Law, Siber Ink; and Contracts of Employment, Siber Ink, second edition with Talita Laubscher).