Consensus Mediation: Enterprising Dispute Resolution                82 King Street Manchester M2 4WQ               Regent's Place 338 Euston Road London NW1 3BT

A chartered accountant since 1969, I have been a partner or principal continuously from 1971 to September 2003. Now a consultant, I continue to mediate and provide litigation support services from a north of England office of a national firm.

Until 1989 I acted for clients from public companies to sole traders and personal tax clients. Many clients were family companies, some quite large, where I advised on business, financial, tax, family, succession and inter-personal problems. A significant minority of my general practice clients were Jewish, Sikh, Muslim, Hindu and Greek Orthodox, and I greatly enjoyed working closely with a group of clients with such a broad range of cultural backgrounds.

As an expert witness, I have conducted investigations and negotiations in a wide variety of commercial, personal injury, fraud, professional negligence, matrimonial and criminal cases, including offences under the Insolvency Act and in confiscation cases. I have also assisted defence lawyers in a substantial fraud case of national importance. I frequently perform expert determinations. I have given expert testimony to a wide variety of courts and tribunals on about 70 occasions.

I act as a support member (confidential counsellor) for chartered accountants with ethical problems, and I am the spokesman on forensic accounting for the West Yorkshire Society of Chartered Accountants.

Authorised by the Law Society and the Bar Council to provide lawyers with post-qualification training, I regularly lecture to solicitors, barristers and other professionals on litigation topics of current interest.

I have had many articles published in legal journals, and was for many years a contributor to Kemp & Kemp 'The Quantum of Damages'. As well as keeping the tax chapter updated annually, I wrote a chapter on the quantification of loss by the self-employed and directors of family businesses.

With one fairly hopeless exception, my success rate in mediations so far is 100%.

Recent mediations have involved some complex cases where accountancy skills have proved invaluable:

"It helped to have a qualified accountant"

"We picked a first rate man for a very difficult case"

"An excellent communicator"

"Mr Makin was a very approachable man with an exceptionally nice manner"

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