The death of Colin J. Wall on July 16, 2015, is a crushing blow to our profession and a personal loss to me.<\/p>\n
Colin was not a lawyer. \u00a0He was trained as a quantity surveyor, which (as he explained it to me) meant that he was good a figuring out what a construction change order would cost. \u00a0 Raised in Birmingham, he found himself posted in Hong Kong by an early employer and was consulted by Queen Mary’s Hospital, which was undergoing an extensive revision. \u00a0The Hospital was receiving bids for the construction work that far exceeded its expectations. \u00a0Colin noted that the building had an asbestos condition of unknown scope and expense, and he suggested that the Hospital assume the asbestos removal itself, at its own direct cost, and bid out the job on a post-removal basis. \u00a0It did so, and the project went forward without a stumble.<\/p>\n
Rebuilding a working hospital “without a stumble” turned out to be just the assignment for a person of Colin Wall’s persistent, collaborative, problem-solving, disciplined frame of mind. \u00a0He established a rapport with each stakeholder, from the physicians through the administrators to the vendors, to ensure that the work progresses in a sequence and at a rate that everyone had agreed upon, expected, and knew how to accommodate. \u00a0Working on building the Hong Kong airport, while it was fully operational, was a similarly revelatory example. \u00a0Colin was not a blamer, but rather a fixer, and his approach to conflicts on a construction project was less that of a lawyer than a life coach, or a midwife.<\/p>\n
He worked closely with Eric Green and became a mediator and arbitrator in global demand. \u00a0He spent three weeks in Hong Kong and one at home in England, and accepted disputes in the hundreds of millions — even billions — of dollars in Asia and the Middle East. \u00a0So clear was his insight, and so easygoing was his manner, that he eased into the role of a leader among us. \u00a0Over the years he served as\u00a0president of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), co-president of the UIA’s world forum of mediation centers, and honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong. He was a pioneer of Dispute Advisory Boards. \u00a0He chaired the Hong Kong Mediation Council, and\u00a0was\u00a0on the panel of distinguished neutrals of CPR, the ICDR mediation panel, the CEDR-Solve panel of mediators and numerous other panels.<\/p>\n
I first became aware of Colin through the St. Mary’s achievement, then got to know him at the UIA Forum (where we were set up to debate a provision of the Code of Ethics in 2003 or so), at the ICC Mediation Competition, and eventually simply as a friend. \u00a0When he came to the States for treatment of his cancer in the Spring, we took trips to the seaside, to the Shawangunk Mountains, and (when AMTRAK service was suspended the day before a preparatory procedure at Johns Hopkins) to Baltimore. \u00a0We sang Gilbert & Sullivan. \u00a0He lectured me about my practice of not contacting mediation parties except through their lawyers. \u00a0We talked about our children and our plans.<\/p>\n
His devotion to learning was unremitting, and he was an enthusiastic teacher of young and old. \u00a0With Alan Linbury and Greg Bond, Colin was responsible for the recent publication of a book collecting past scenarios for the ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition<\/a>, many of which he had drafted. \u00a0He was a stalwart of the VIS East Arbitration Competition, known for buying time for the judges while relating the story of the maritime arbitration<\/a> involving the CSS Alabama<\/a> and getting the students to sing the shanty “Roll, Alabama, Roll<\/a>.” \u00a0A highlight of his trip to the States was the chance to view the sternpost of the USS Kearsarge, still bearing an unexploded shell from the Alabama during the Battle of Cherbourg<\/a>.<\/p>\n In one of our last conversations, during the recent UIA Forum meeting in Amsterdam, Colin and I traded lines from Act One of The Mikado<\/em>:<\/p>\n Katisha<\/strong>. <\/span>(who is reading certificate of death)<\/span> Ha!<\/p>\n Mikado<\/strong>. <\/span>What’s the matter?<\/p>\n
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