Kraemer, Raimonda

The influence of lawyers on the development of mediation is one of the greatest, since in the event of a dispute the lawyers are the first to contact the parties to the dispute. Nevertheless, the practice of legal mediation belongs to a field that has not yet been empirically researched (Wambach-Schulz, 2018, p. 82).Today, both clients and customers of legal services place high demands on the lawyer; therefore it is necessary for the lawyer to strive for new competencies that would help to optimally examine each legal dispute and thus help them remain competitive in the legal market. In recent years, mediation has become increasingly important in Lithuania, but its application in the practice of lawyers is still insufficient. For this reason, and to research the experiences of the lawyers, the author conducted a survey in Lithuania, Austria, Germany and Great Britain (England and Wales).The results of the research showed that the reasons for the application of mediation in the activities of lawyers depends on different but interrelated factors. Complex research focused exclusively on the activities of a lawyer in mediation and covering the possible roles of a lawyer in mediation, as well as their behavior in different stages of mediation, the peculiarities of legal regulation, and practical aspects faced by a lawyer participating in mediation has not been conducted in Lithuania so far.