McGregor Mediation was founded and is led by Roger Knowles, with a team of additional experts assembled, as and when required, on a per-mediation basis.
Born and educated in Durban, Roger has, from an early age, had a keen interest in a wide range of topics, people, and sports. Through his pursuit of and involvement in these various interests, he has met and interacted with a large and diverse range of people, in so doing realising a fundamental interest in people and communication. He is widely read, has been a member of numerous interest groups, and has developed a broad general knowledge. Here are some of his areas of involvement:
Sports – all sports played at school, probably achieving most in athletics, as his father was a national champion athlete.
Sporting & other activities – after leaving school, Roger’s main sporting interests related to the ocean. He was a keen surfer, diver and fisherman. He served on the committee of the Durban Undersea Club in his 30’s and 40’s, also joining various other organisations such as Round Table, and the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa.
Community – Roger was, in his teens, very involved in spiritual interests. In addition, he joined Toastmasters, which motivated him to take a greater interest in the field of communications – he had already developed a reputation as a speaker at school, church, and association levels. He and his late wife Charlotte have two sons, Christopher and Grant; wherever his sons were involved, Roger took an active interest, becoming involved in school committees, judo, and scouting parent bodies.
Careers – Roger could not settle into a career path at university and dropped out with just a handful of credits. He entered employment with the Engineering Insurance Group, a combined department of seven insurance companies. He began in Durban, was elevated to Head Office in Johannesburg within a year, then to Cape Town to serve as assistant and understudy to the branch manager for the Cape Province and Namibia (known then as South West Africa). The EIG, as it was then known, managed the insurance of machinery of all types, including everything from a service station compressor (his first task), to massive machines, mining and production lines, and the various safety measures necessary to minimise both loss due to damage, replacement or repair and loss of profits.
However, Roger felt regret at having dropped out of university without a degree. He obtained a diploma in Operations Management, and then subscribed to a British insurance qualification. His results were excellent in the first year, including a distinction for his high marks in the exam on the legal aspects of insurance. This result caused him to reconsider studying and, within a short period, he had registered with UNISA, to complete a law degree by correspondence. He and his newly wed wife Charlotte travelled to Durban, where Roger completed his law degree and entrance exams while working as a clerk for a local attorney.
Following his admission as an attorney, Roger worked as a litigator (criminal cases, neighbour disputes, motor collisions, contractual disputes, collections, purchase and sale, divorce, maintenance, and a further wide variety) and a specialist in liquor licensing – initially, in the small firm where he had served his articles of clerkship, and then joined one of the two large firms in Durban, Shepstone and Wylie. He was there for only two years before opening his own law firm, followed by a period of about 38 years during which he practiced alone or in a series of partnerships with one or two other partners at a time. He focused mainly on Divorce and other aspects of family law, encouraging his partners to do the same, freeing him to take advantage of the change in the law in 1995 that permitted some attorneys to apply to have the right to appear in the High Court. He seized the opportunity, and competed with the advocates for the next seven years or so. On most days, he was the sole attorney amongst the advocates, as the High Court presented far bigger challenges and fees. Seizing the opportunity to break into the ‘big time’ in the High Court, rather than the lower status Magistrates courts. But it was heavy going, and his wife’s illness was getting worse, so he decided to close his practice and seek employment. There was only one other large firm in Durban back when Roger was with Shepstone and Wylie – Garlicke and Bousfield, where he worked for the final years of his legal career, leaving in April 2021 after the death of his beloved wife Charlotte 15 months earlier, and to focus on two aspects of the law that had always attracted his interest, namely Mediation and the and practice of Negotiation, which he focuses on now, and intends to work on for the rest of his working life, or, as he puts it, “Until I drop”.
In summary, his working life to date involved almost every aspect of the law, a fair amount of machinery insurance, and, at all times, communication with people. Roger has run a small speaking and training business for the past 15 years, having developed the necessary skills in his legal career and the many civic organisations he joined to widen his network. He has spoken to thousands of people at conferences, seminars and training events throughout Southern Africa, and even as an entertainer aboard cruise ships in the Indian Ocean.
This broad range of interests, experiences and activities fits Roger ideally for his current career as a Mediator. He had always preferred a negotiated settlement to a trial, and now does only that – mediation is quicker, less expensive or antagonistic than a trial, and costs clients far less.
Interested? Contact us to arrange a free short telephone consultation to assess whether your case is a good one for the process of negotiation called ‘Mediation’.