Elizabeth Birch, the founder and director of ACI, has been an English Barrister since 1978, specializing in commercial law.  She holds the Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration and was appointed a member of the Lloyd's Arbitration Scheme Panel in 1992.  She has since arbitrated many of the disputes concerning the Lloyd’s Market, including portfolio management disputes and issues relating to "baby" or parallel syndicates, the LMX Spiral and those arising out of the asbestos and pollution liabilities incurred in the U.S.A., as well as the Settlement Agreement itself.

As both a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and one of the Panel of Supporting Members of the London Maritime Arbitrators' Association who are able to accept appointments for arbitrations and mediations, Ms. Birch frequently sits as arbitrator in insurance, general commercial, contractual and shipping disputes.  She accepts appointments under ICC and LCIA Rules and many of the cases in which she is appointed involve international or cross-border disputes.

Ms. Birch became accredited as a mediator in 1995 by both the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) and the Academy of Experts and is a member of the Court of Appeal Panel of Mediators.  She has mediated a substantial number of commercial disputes including high value, cross-border, technical and multi-party cases.

Following the Arbitration Act 1996, Ms. Birch founded ACI (A Commercial Initiative for Dispute Resolution), an innovative initiative enabling businesses and the professions to have their disputes resolved speedily and effectively by lawyer-arbitrators, initially concentrating on the banking, insurance and financial services sectors.

ACI now provides arbitrators in all areas of commercial law and provides a modern and effective framework for dispute resolution.  The ACI schemes for alternative dispute resolution include mediation, early neutral evaluation and mini-trials; new arbitration and mediation schemes are tailor-made to accommodate parties’ individual requirements.

Ms. Birch has been recommended for ADR in every edition of Chambers’ Guide to the UK Legal Profession since 1998-1999 and was named as one of the top ten mediators in the UK in a survey carried out by "In Brief" journal in July 2002.  In 2003, she collaborated with Paul J. Wright in forming an association between ACI and IMAC to provide a joint panel of distinguished mediators and arbitrators to resolve international commercial disputes.

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