Why India’s Next Generation of Lawyers Must Understand Mediation: Insights from Adv Joel K. Johnson

Adv. Joel Kenneth Johnson is a Supreme Court and High Court Advocate specialising in mediation, arbitration, corporate law, and intellectual property rights. He currently leads the Knowledge & Commitment Vertical at The Mediation Society, promoting awareness and training in mediation and dispute resolution. He is a certified mediator under the MCPC of the Supreme Court of India and also serves as a Panel and Accredited Arbitrator with the Indian Institute of Arbitration and Mediation.

A Registered Trademark Attorney and Corporate Lawyer, he previously headed training, internships, and IPR practice at Conscientia Consultancy & Law Associates, Bengaluru. He studied at Symbiosis International University, National University of Advanced Legal Studies, and National Law School of India University.

In this interview, we managed to ask him important questions about mediation, ADR, legal education, and the evolving future of dispute resolution in India.

1. Mediation is often described as the future of dispute resolution in India. What first drew you towards mediation as a practice area?

Honestly, it started with a simple observation , that most disputes I encountered in litigation weren’t really about the law at all. They were about broken trust, unheard grievances, or communication that had gone completely off the rails somewhere. 

People walked into legal battles wanting to be understood, not just to win a case. That realisation stayed with me. And when I got involved with The Mediation Society,which we’ve built as a registered, not-for-profit platform dedicated to fostering a culture of mediation in Kerala , it deepened considerably. In the last eight months alone, we’ve received over 800 applications from people wanting to be trained in mediation. That’s not a statistic I take lightly. It tells you something real about where people’s curiosity is heading.

Being involved in the Society Activities under the guidance of shri Rajesh C muttath, conducting awareness programmes, training sessions, panel discussions , all of it has shown me that mediation is not just a process. It’s a different way of thinking about conflict. And being a certified mediator under the Supreme Court’s MCPC panel means I’ve also seen it work in practice, not just in theory. That combination , the human dimension of it, paired with genuine legal rigour , is what keeps drawing me back to it.

2. Despite the growth of ADR in India, mediation still remains underutilised. According to you, what are the biggest misconceptions people have about mediation?

The most persistent one I encounter is the belief that mediation is somehow softer or less legitimate than going to court. That justice only happens with a judge and a verdict. But that’s a fundamentally incomplete picture of what dispute resolution actually is.

Through our programmes at The Mediation Society, I’ve had the chance to interact with students, lawyers, and lay people who hold this belief , and almost always, it shifts once they see what structured mediation actually involves. It requires legal understanding, negotiation skill, emotional intelligence, and strategic clarity. That’s not soft. That’s demanding, in a different way.

Another misconception is that mediation only works when both sides already want to settle. In my experience , both through training and practice , that isn’t true. Parties who seem completely entrenched often move significantly once someone facilitates real communication between them. The willingness to engage comes through the process, not before it.

And for young lawyers specifically, there’s this notion that ADR is somehow outside the mainstream of legal practice. I’d push back on that. Mediation demands a more evolved form of advocacy , one where you’re combining legal knowledge with an understanding of people, interests, and practical outcomes.

3. As someone empanelled with the Supreme Court’s Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee (MCPC), how have you seen the mediation landscape evolve in recent years?

The shift has been real and visible. When I started paying close attention to this space, mediation was largely seen as a procedural box to tick before litigation resumed. That perception has changed meaningfully.

There’s now a more genuine institutional recognition of mediation ,the Mediation Act of 2023 is a significant marker of that. Courts are referring matters more seriously. Businesses are including mediation clauses in contracts not just as boilerplate, but with actual intent. And the people entering the profession today are more curious about collaborative approaches than previous generations of lawyers tended to be.

What I find most encouraging, though, is the grassroots momentum. The fact that The Mediation Society has trained over 200 people in under a year, with hundreds more applying, tells me the interest isn’t just at the institutional level. It’s coming from people who want to practice differently. That’s a generational shift, and it feels genuine.

Being certified by the MCPC and having been with the panel has also given me a window into how the process functions when it’s taken seriously , and there’s a real difference between mediation done well and mediation done as a formality. The former can genuinely resolve things that courts struggle with for years.

 4. In practical terms, what makes mediation different from traditional litigation for clients as well as lawyers?

The simplest way I’d put it: litigation is about determining who’s right; mediation is about figuring out what works.

In litigation, the parties are handed an outcome by someone outside the dispute. In mediation, they participate in shaping it , and that involvement matters more than people expect. When someone feels heard and has contributed to a resolution, the outcome tends to stick. There’s less resentment, and often less need for further legal action.

For clients, the differences are practical: it’s confidential, faster, less expensive, and significantly less emotionally draining. Commercial clients especially are starting to recognise that prolonged litigation has costs that go far beyond legal fees , disrupted operations, strained relationships, management bandwidth consumed by a dispute that could have been resolved.

For lawyers, it requires a genuinely different skillset. Your value in mediation isn’t just in knowing the law , it’s in understanding your client’s real interests, reading the room, knowing when to push and when to hold back. I’ve done litigation, I’ve done advisory work on trademarks and corporate matters, and I can say honestly that mediation has made me a sharper adviser across all of it. It forces you to think about outcomes, not just arguments.

5. Many law students are curious about careers in ADR. What skills should a young law student or lawyer develop to build a career in mediation?

The first skill I’d name is listening , genuine, patient listening. Not waiting for your turn to speak, but actually trying to understand what the other person is communicating, including what they’re not saying directly. It sounds basic, but most people, including lawyers, aren’t very good at it when they first start.

Beyond that, negotiation and problem-solving are essential. You have to be comfortable sitting with ambiguity, finding creative solutions that a court could never order, and working across the space between what parties say they want and what they actually need.

Emotional intelligence matters more in mediation than in almost any other area of legal practice. You’re managing people in conflict , often stressed, sometimes hostile, always hoping something will change. Being able to read that and respond well is a skill worth developing deliberately.

And I’d say strongly: don’t skip the litigation foundation. Understanding legal risk, procedure, evidence, and commercial realities makes your counsel in mediation infinitely more credible and useful. The best mediators I’ve encountered are also people who deeply understand what the alternative looks like.

Practically speaking , get involved. Join mediation societies, institutions, participate in competitions, volunteer at ADR centres, attend actual proceedings where you can. The classroom teaches you the concepts. Experience teaches you the rest.

6. Do law schools in India currently provide enough practical exposure to mediation and negotiation? What changes would you like to see in legal education?

The honest answer is: not yet, though it’s improving. The gap between doctrinal legal education and the skills needed to actually practice mediation is still significant in most institutions.

This is partly why platforms like The Mediation Society exist. We try to bridge that gap , through training programmes, awareness sessions, discussions, and creating spaces where people can practice conflict resolution rather than just read about it. The response has been striking: over 800 applications for our training programmes in eight months tells you there’s a real appetite for this kind of learning that isn’t being met through conventional legal education alone.

What I’d want to see more of: clinical exposure to actual mediation proceedings, not just simulations. Students should be in the room, observing how real disputes unfold, how parties behave under pressure, how a skilled mediator manages a conversation that’s about to fall apart. That can’t be replicated in a classroom.

I’d also like to see negotiation and communication taught as core skills, not electives. The lawyer of the future , and honestly, the lawyer of today , needs to be fluent in both adversarial and collaborative modes. Legal education should equip students for both.

7. Alongside mediation, you also work in corporate and commercial legal practice. How does mediation play a role in resolving commercial disputes today?

Commercial disputes are where mediation’s practical advantages become very concrete, very quickly.

Think about what prolonged litigation does to a business , not just in legal costs, but in management attention diverted, investor confidence shaken, business relationships that may never fully recover. Mediation offers a confidential, efficient path that preserves the possibility of continuing to work together, or at minimum, allows parties to exit a dispute without scorching everything in sight.

My background spans trademark practice, corporate advisory, and commercial litigation, and across all of it, I’ve seen businesses become increasingly clear-eyed about these trade-offs. Startups especially tend to get it instinctively. They can’t afford to be locked in litigation for three years. They need resolution that lets them move forward.

Commercial mediation today also isn’t simply about finding a middle ground. It involves careful analysis of risk, understanding what each party actually values most, and crafting agreements that courts simply couldn’t design. That’s where legal training and mediation skill come together most powerfully.

8. In commercial matters, do businesses in India now prefer negotiated settlements over lengthy litigation?

Increasingly, yes , though India is still in transition culturally on this.

The businesses that tend to be most open to it are commercially sophisticated ones: companies with exposure to international practices, investors who’ve seen how other markets handle disputes, and founders who are simply too focused on growth to want a years-long legal battle consuming their attention.

What’s changing the calculus is the growing awareness that litigation is expensive in ways that don’t always show up in a legal bill. Time, reputation, the energy of your leadership team…these are real costs. Mediation, when it works, eliminates most of them.

That said, I don’t think litigation is going away, nor should it. Some disputes genuinely need judicial determination. What I do think is changing is the default assumption , more businesses are now asking whether a dispute needs to go to court before they file, rather than after two years of pleadings.

At The Mediation Society, a significant part of what we do is building that awareness, helping people understand what mediation is actually capable of, so they make that choice with real information rather than habit.

9. Finally, what message would you like to give to law students and young lawyers who wish to explore mediation as a serious career path?

I’d tell them to take it seriously early, because it will make them better at everything else too.

My own path, through trademark practice, corporate litigation, advisory work, and into mediation , taught me that law, at its core, is about people and their problems. The technical knowledge is non-negotiable. But the ability to understand what someone actually needs, to communicate clearly under pressure, to help people find a way forward when they’re certain they can’t , that’s what makes the difference between being competent and being genuinely useful.

Mediation won’t limit your legal career. It’ll deepen it. The skills you build , negotiation, active listening, emotional intelligence, problem-solving , carry into every other area of practice. I’ve felt that in my own work constantly.

Get involved wherever you can. Don’t wait until you’re senior enough or experienced enough. Show up, participate, ask questions, take the training seriously. The mediation community in India , including what we’re building through The Mediation Society , genuinely needs younger practitioners who are curious and committed.

And stay grounded. The most effective people I’ve seen in this space are not the most impressive ones in the room. They’re the ones who make other people feel understood. That’s the skill. Everything else follows from it.