Professional background and experience:

Helen Burt is a commercially minded, dual-qualified (United Kingdom and South Africa) corporate and commercial lawyer. She holds a B.Comm LLB from the University of Stellenbosch and a Masters of Law (Intellectual Property) from Duke University, USA. She has also studied at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

Helen has over 20 years of extensive national and international experience in corporate, commercial, intellectual property and technology law. Her experience spans top-tier law firms in the UK and South Africa and senior and general legal counsel roles for various organisations, including a publicly listed multi-national global bank, a publicly listed property investment management company, a privately-owned asset management company and a pioneer of an emerging fintech bank within the financial services sector.

Helen is highly adaptable, a solutionist-thinker and is confident working at and with all levels of management. She is well-versed in managing diversity and diverse cultures from different backgrounds and jurisdictions and managing cross-border teams and projects. She has exceptional communication and strong influencing and relationship-building skills.

With a passion for empowering people, helping them achieve their goals, she is an accredited qualified empowerment coach with accreditation from COMENSA underpinned by the International Coaching Federation.

In addition, Helen is an internationally accredited Commercial Mediator through CEDR (UK) and Conflict Dynamics (South Africa) and an accredited ADR international and Family Assist Mediator.

Mediation experience and style:

Helen’s mediation practice is focused on commercial and divorce disputes. Her mediation style is based on facilitating a process that is confidential, objective and impartial. In her role as a facilitator, she seeks to promote open, non-confrontational discussions between the parties and to guide them to an amicable resolution of their dispute. Her approach is flexible, solution-focused and she is able to adapt her approach and mediation style to the situation and requirements of the parties. At all times, Helen’s focus as the mediator is to preserve the parties’ respective interests and needs, find common ground and to support them in reaching an amicable win-win solution.

With excellent communication and relationship-building skills, Helen is able to establish rapport and trust with the parties, and to create a safe, non-judgemental environment within which they can engage meaningfully and explore creative solutions for their dispute. 

She is always conscious of ensuring that the parties are well informed prior to the mediation and have a clear understanding of the process and their roles and her role as mediator in the process including the confidential, voluntary nature of mediation. 

Coaching experience and style:

Helen’s coaching experience includes professional and personal, managerial and leadership skills coaching for top-tier law firms in South Africa, large multi-national organisations and non-profit organisations’ SMME programs, including the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation: Black Umbrellas. Her coaching style is one of partnering with clients in an exciting and creative process, ensuring that coaching is tailor-made to address each client’s specific personal and professional needs. Her experience extends to training groups regarding mediation, the mediation process and their preparation for the process. Her extensive international and national experience allows her to bring practical guidance and advice to clients.

Comments from clients:

“Helen was a great mediator and facilitated a settlement between our client and the opposing party. Overall, the experience was organised, punctual and beneficial and left our client satisfied with the outcome. We would highly recommend Helen as a mediator in future.”

“Helen Burt was appointed as a mediator in a commercial dispute which had been lingering for a number of years in litigation. With the professional assistance of Helen, we reached a settlement that satisfied both parties. Helen was efficient and had the right balance of firmness and cordiality between the parties and navigated the disputes and expectations of the parties expertly. I would recommend Helen for commercial mediations without reservation.”