Blažo Nedić

Senior Fellow – Serbia

Blažo Nedić is an internationally accredited independent mediator based in Belgrade, Serbia. He is a trainer, consultant, and attorney with 24 years of experience, including legal practice in the U.K. and Serbia and mediation practice in Serbia, Europe, and internationally.

About Blažo Nedić

Mr. Nedić is an international rule of law development project manager and consultant. He has over 40 technical assistance and capacity building projects, developed, managed and implemented in the areas of rule of law, democracy and governance, ADR and mediation, in Serbia and throughout the region. From 2001-2008 he worked as a Deputy Country Director of the USAID funded ABA/CEELI Rule of Law development program, implementing legal reform projects in Serbia.

Since 2008, he leads Partners for Democratic Change Serbia, a local civil society organization, implementing local, regional, and international development projects in the field of rule of law, development of ADR and mediation, and democracy and human rights in Serbia and the region

Litigation Practice

Mr. Nedić has been a member of the Serbian Bar Association, since 1996, and Official Court Interpreter for English language, certified by the Belgrade High Court, since 2003. He practiced law in the U.K. and Serbia, and was a member of the legal team of Ian Macdonald QC in the UK House of Lords case Regina v. SSHD (ex parte Abdi & Gawe) 1 WLR 298 HL.

Mediation Practice

Mr. Nedić has over 20 years of legal and mediation practice, specializing in civil, commercial, workplace, family and property mediation. As a mediator, he has handled several hundred cases, including 40 cases as a mediator in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, and assisting the Baker Hughes-a GE Company global litigation department in resolving complex international commercial disputes.
He is certified by the ABA Dispute Resolution Section, ADR Group UK, and JAMS International. In Serbia, he is licensed for mediation and accredited for mediation training by the Ministry of Justice, and is listed by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and the Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination.
Mr. Nedić is one of the World Bank’s 30 Regional Mediators, contracted by Mediation Services (MEF) in Washington DC. Blažo Nedić serves as a mediator, facilitator and conflict competency trainer for the World Bank Europe and Central Asia region.
In 2015, Mr. Nedić co-founded ADR Partners, a Serbia-based company providing mediation services, including ADR consulting, and mediation, negotiation, and communication training.

ADR Achievements and Training

ADR Achievements

In 2017, Mr. Nedić was a competition judge at the XII ICC Mediation Student Competition in Paris, France.
He is the President of the Serbian National Association of Mediators (NUMS) and a regional mediator of the World Bank Group, Office of Mediation Services, for Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. As a mediator, he is licensed by the Serbian Ministry of Justice and listed by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, and the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner of Serbia. He is also certified by the American Bar Association (ABA), and ADR Group (UK).
Mr. Nedić was a member of the Serbian Government working groups, drafting the new Law on Mediation and Law on Free Legal Aid.
Recipient of the JAMS Foundation Weinstein International Fellowship (2012)

ADR Training

ADR Group, Civil and Commercial Mediator Training, London UK (June 2003)
Nordic Forum for Mediation and Conflict Management, Workshops and Seminars, Oslo/Helsinki, Norway/Finland (May 2006)
ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, Fifth Annual Advanced Mediation and Advocacy Skills Training, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (October 2006)
Mediators Without Borders, Commercial Mediator Training, Belgrade, Serbia (April 2009)
(CSSP, Community Mediator Training, Skopje, Macedonia (April 2010)
JAMS Foundation Mediation Workshop, San Francisco, USA (September 2012)
JAMS Advanced ADR training, San Francisco, USA (March 2014)
Advanced Negotiation Certificate, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA (June 2014)

ADR Teaching and Mentoring

Mr. Nedić delivers basic and advanced mediation trainings, facilitation, communication and negotiation skills trainings, and mediation advocacy workshops for lawyers, and train-the-trainers courses.
He is a skilled trainer and experienced training program development expert, including e-learning programs. He has attended several Training-of-Trainers programs and received certificates from International Development Law Institute Rome, and the US Department of Justice. He developed and implemented numerous training programs, including training-of-trainers for judges, public prosecutors, police administrators, local government officials, as well as, lawyers, CSOs, media, commercial sectors and citizens.
He organized and delivered training programs for the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, Judicial Academy, Bar Association, State Commissioner for Data Protection, Serbian Chamber of Commerce, local municipalities, and other state, local governments and other public and private stakeholders.
Mr. Nedić specializes in developing and delivering training programs in the area of mediation & conflict management, negotiation & communication skills, personal data protection, and training-of-trainers methodologies.
In 2014 he was a visiting lecturer at the Mediation Clinic of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law.
Since 2015, as one of the Partners for Democratic Change Serbia trainers, he is accredited by the Ministry of Justice of Serbia to deliver basic and advanced training for mediators.
In 2017, Blažo Nedić, as one of the Partners for Democratic Change Serbia trainers, received accreditation by the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government to train local government officials.

Publications and Education

Publications

Author: “Financial Incentives for Mediation,” British Council’s Judicial Efficiency Project, EU, Serbia (June 2017)

Co-author: “Mediation in Law Schools in Serbia Report,” Commercial Mediation in Serbia Project, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Serbia (December 2016)

“The Variegated Landscape of Mediation Regulation, a Comparative Study in Europe and the World,” editor for Serbia, Manon Schonewille & Dr. Fred Schonewille, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2014)

Author: “Resolution of Property Disputes – analysis and recommendation of improvement of practice in Serbia” (article in “Mediation – Principles, Process Implementation,” Center for Applied Psychology, Belgrade, Serbia (2014)

Article, “Mediation and Lawyers,” The Lawyer Magazine, Bar Association of Serbia (June 2013)
Co-author: “Mediation in Serbia – Achievements and Challenges,” Partners for Democratic Change Serbia (December 2012)

Co-author: “Recommendations for Development of Mediation in Serbia,” World Bank IFC, Serbia (September 2011)

Co-author: “Assessment of the Mediation Program in District Court Kraljevo” report, Canada Serbia-Judicial Reform Project, Canadian CIDA (August 2009)

Article: “Strategy of Mediation in Serbia,” Justice in Transition, Belgrade, Serbia (October 2009)

Co-editor: Mediation Bench Book, ABA/CEELI Serbia (July 2005)

Article: “Lawyers and mediation – threat or opportunity,” Mediation Bench Book, ABA/CEELI Serbia (July 2005)

Project Coordinator: “Mediation Training Video,” ABA/CEELI Serbia (June 2005)

Educational Qualifications

LL.M. in Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law, Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution (2018)
Postgraduate studies in International & Comparative Business Law, London (1995)
Belgrade University Faculty of Law (1991)