Commercial and investment disputes have become a routine feature of construction, energy, infrastructure and supply contracts, and their financial consequences reach far beyond legal fees. Expert costs, management time, delayed cash flows, interest and enforcement all affect the real value of a claim or defence, yet these figures are rarely brought together into a single view that boards and decision-makers can use.

The Financial Management for Arbitration, Mediation & Dispute Resolution Training Course provides that view over five days. It opens with the economics of disputes and a comparison of resolution routes, then moves into budgeting, funding options and cost control for arbitral and mediated proceedings. Participants then learn how damages and interest are quantified, how expert evidence on quantum is prepared and challenged, and how to analyse settlement offers rationally rather than emotionally. The programme closes with the accounting treatment of disputes, reporting to boards and the governance of a portfolio of claims.

Learning is case-based. Participants work on a fictional construction dispute that develops across the week, preparing a case budget, a damages calculation, a settlement analysis and a board briefing paper. No legal qualification is required, although familiarity with contracts and financial statements is helpful.

Through the programme, participants learn to:

• Compare the cost, time and risk profiles of litigation, arbitration, mediation and adjudication.
• Prepare and control a budget for arbitral or mediated proceedings.
• Evaluate funding options including third-party funding, insurance and alternative fee arrangements.
• Quantify damages, lost profits and interest using accepted valuation methods.
• Assess the quality of quantum expert reports and the assumptions behind them.
• Value settlement offers using expected value and decision tree analysis.
• Apply IAS 37 to provisions and contingent liabilities arising from disputes.
• Report on a dispute portfolio in a form boards can act on.

Professionals who handle the commercial and financial side of disputes, including:

• In-house counsel and legal managers
• Finance directors, financial controllers and CFOs
• Contract, commercial and claims managers
• Quantity surveyors and construction claims consultants
• Forensic accountants and valuation specialists
• Arbitrators, mediators and arbitration institution staff
• Procurement and project managers in infrastructure and energy
• Risk and internal audit managers

Each participant completes the week with:

• A case budget template covering tribunal, institutional, counsel and expert costs.
• A worked damages and interest calculation for a commercial claim.
• A settlement decision tree that sets out a recommended negotiating range.
• A checklist for instructing and reviewing quantum experts.
• A board briefing paper format for reporting dispute exposure.

The week follows one evolving dispute, supported by:

• A fictional construction claim file that develops day by day
• Spreadsheet exercises on budgets, damages and interest
• A mediation simulation with separate financial briefs for each side
• Critique of extracts from sample quantum expert reports
• Facilitated discussion of participants' own dispute experience

Each participant's full attendance and completion of the case budget, damages calculation and settlement analysis is recognised with a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion issued by Vision Reach Global Consultancy.