‘There is no one who can match her intellectually or her wide-ranging experience. Her clients are fortunate to be advised by her,’ said one peer of Parker.
Although she is also credited for her ‘fearless’ litigation, Parker is as much shield as sword, often securing settlement away from the stress and cost of the court process. That is true of the past year, about which she is able to tell Spear’s very little. ‘Happily I have been able to resolve even the most complex and contentious issues out of court — and they are therefore all covered by the cloak of confidentiality,’ she says.
Out-of-court arbitration also brings economy, says Parker, who saved Sir Christopher Hohn £140 million in court: ‘Solicitors should stop being so anxious that their clients will blame them for choosing the arbitrator if the award is unwelcome. One solution is to have each party appoint an arbitrator, but purely for the purposes of appointing a third party who will in fact arbitrate the issues.’
Clients certainly seem happy, praising Parker’s ‘wit, razor intelligence, and down to earth humanity. [Her] international reputation is well deserved.’