In-housers at E.ON retrain as mediators

Energy company E.ON is rolling out an in-house mediation service to resolve disputes between its hundreds of subsidiaries as well as external businesses.

The initiative has so far seen 48 mediators, half of whom are in-house lawyers, trained across more than 15 E.ON entities.

Dr Jürgen Klowait, head of legal affairs at E.ON’s unit in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, said in-house mediation saved more than just time and money.

“E.ON mediators also have the advantage of being familiar with the group’s structures, compared with external mediators who would first have to become acquainted with them,” said Klowait. “Also, with every mediation that we do we’re learning how we can optimise our internal processes and provide better services.”

The concept will see E.ON companies with no legal team go to other subsidiaries that do, in order to have them act as a neutral party to mediate disputes.

If the company already has an in-house legal team it can turn to an E.ON business in another country to avoid conflicts of interest.

As the initiative continues to roll out it will see the mediators extend their services to other companies E.ON works closely with.