Private review · August 2026

Giles Surman Mediation: Project Review

What is in place, what needs your input, and the next controlled step.

Prepared for Giles Surman by JD Core Dev. A private working document for discussion: nothing in it records acceptance, a launch, or a decision. Those remain yours to make.

Where things stand

The practice system is ready for your hands-on review.

The build is technically prepared for you to see and try. It is not live, and nothing about it is treated as settled until you have reviewed it.

One principle runs through everything: the system drafts, and you approve. It never clears a conflict on its own, and it never sends anything on its own.

  • Enquiry & approval Every enquiry receives a drafted reply that waits in your approval inbox. Nothing reaches a client until you approve it.
  • Conflict assessment The system surfaces potential conflicts for you to weigh. Only you record the assessment; there is no automatic clearance anywhere.
  • Booking & calendar Availability comes from your own calendar. A requested booking is held, and can only be confirmed after your conflict assessment is recorded.
  • Documents & fee notes Matter documents are drafted and versioned for your review. Fee notes render as HKD PDFs and are issued only through your approval.
  • Data rights & audit trail Access and erasure requests are handled from the console, and every action lands in an append-only audit record.

A tour of the system

Follow the practice from first contact to control.

A private review copy of the practice system is running for you now, filled with a small cast of invented people. The pages that follow show the public front door, what the system prepares for you, and the decisions that stay with you. Every screenshot links to the real page.

  1. Click anything

    The review copy is read-only. Nothing in it can send an email, reach a real person, or touch a live service; every consequential control is switched off.

  2. Everyone in it is invented

    Casey Ho, Riley Ng and their fellow contacts are synthetic sample people, marked as such throughout. No real client information is anywhere in this copy.

  3. This is the review, not the launch

    The copy exists so you can form a view before the separate hands-on session. It is not the live system, and nothing you do in it commits you to anything.

A tour of the system · the front door

The public website, as a visitor meets it.

Screenshot of your review copy

What this is

The practice's front door: who you are, what mediation covers, how the process works, and two ways to begin.

What it does

Six pages: home, about, practice areas, how it works, FAQ and contact. Every page ends in a next step, and both paths in, an enquiry or an introductory call, lead into the console you will see shortly.

Worth noticing

The whole site wears the current working direction; if you choose a different route later in this document, the site changes clothes from one central setting.

Screenshot of the public website home page: Family mediation for life after separation, with the practice navigation and an introductory-call button.

Open this page yourself → Taken from the review copy as it stands today.

A tour of the system · the front door

An enquiry begins in confidence.

Screenshot of your review copy

What this is

The contact page invites a short message rather than a form-filling exercise, and says plainly how it will be treated.

What it does

Consent is acknowledged before anything is stored. The enquiry then lands in your console with a reply already drafted and waiting for your approval; nothing is ever answered automatically.

Worth noticing

The wording works to lower the threshold for someone at a difficult moment: a few sentences are enough to begin.

Screenshot of the contact page: Start with the facts you are ready to share, above a confidential enquiry form.

Open this page yourself → Taken from the review copy as it stands today.

A tour of the system · the front door

An introductory call, requested in one step.

Screenshot of your review copy

What this is

The booking page frames the first conversation, then takes a request for a time.

What it does

A request is held in the console rather than confirmed on the spot: a booking can only be confirmed after you record a conflict assessment. Confirmed video bookings carry safe meeting defaults.

Worth noticing

Live time selection from your own calendar switches on when the calendar connection is made with you during setup; until then the page takes requests, so nothing is promised that the diary has not offered.

Screenshot of the booking page: Begin with a confidential conversation, above the introductory-call request.

Open this page yourself → Taken from the review copy as it stands today.

A tour of the system · your console

The whole practice, at a glance.

Screenshot of your review copy

What this is

The console's opening view: pending approvals, open enquiries, active matters, contacts and system health, with today's work queue beneath.

What it does

It is arranged around your attention. Whatever needs your judgement, a reply to approve, an enquiry to review, sits at the top; everything else waits until you go looking for it.

Worth noticing

The banner across the top of the review copy: synthetic data only, read-only, dispatches disabled. That is the preview speaking, not the system's normal state.

Screenshot of the console overview: welcome header, preview-mode banner, practice statistics and the day's work queue.

Open the console yourself → Opens in guided preview; no sign-in is needed.

A tour of the system · your console

The approval inbox: nothing leaves without you.

Screenshot of your review copy

What this is

Every drafted message, enquiry replies, letters, fee-note emails, scheduled reminders, waits here as exact text.

What it does

You read the precise wording that would be sent, edit it if you wish, then approve or reject. Approval is the only path by which anything ever leaves the practice; scheduled chases never send from the clock alone.

Worth noticing

This inbox is the single gate for every kind of outbound message. There is no second door.

Screenshot of the approval inbox: a drafted reply to a sample enquirer shown as exact text, with approve and reject controls.

Open the console, then choose Approvals → Two sample drafts are waiting for you to inspect.

A tour of the system · your console

A matter file that holds the whole case.

Screenshot of your review copy

What this is

Each matter carries its stage, its parties, conflict screening, tasks, documents and a timestamped history in one case file.

What it does

Screening surfaces potential matches for your assessment and never decides an outcome. Stage changes are yours to make, and every one is recorded in the matter's history. Documents drafted here go to the approval inbox before they can reach anyone.

Worth noticing

The file reads like a chambers brief rather than a database record: current position first, parties beneath, the working surfaces after.

Screenshot of an open sample matter: Taylor and Lim, shuttle mediation planning, showing the matter stage, both parties and the conflict-screening section.

Open the console, then Matters, then any matter → Three sample matters are loaded to explore.

A tour of the system · your console

A casebook of every relationship.

Screenshot of your review copy

What this is

Every contact the practice knows: enquirers and parties, each with their details, role, linked matters and communication history.

What it does

It keeps the practice's memory in one place, so a name arriving in a new enquiry can be seen against everything that came before, which is also what feeds the conflict screening you saw on the matter file.

Worth noticing

Contact details are held encrypted at rest; what you see decrypted on screen is stored protected underneath.

Screenshot of the contacts casebook: a list of sample contacts with one record open showing email, phone, source and internal note.

Open the console, then choose Contacts → Eight synthetic contacts are loaded to browse.

A tour of the system · your console

Billing: fee notes and polite chasing.

Screenshot of your review copy

What this is

The billing surface: fee notes built from line items and rendered as branded HKD PDFs.

What it does

You preview the exact PDF the payer will receive before anything is queued. Issuing only creates an approval item, and unpaid notes are chased on a polite schedule whose drafts also wait for your approval.

Worth noticing

The three-step strip on the page itself: generate, approve, chase. The system explains its own rules where you work.

Screenshot of the billing surface: fee notes with the generate, approve and chase steps explained.

Open the console, then choose Billing → Taken from the review copy as it stands today.

A tour of the system · your console

Data rights, handled properly.

Screenshot of your review copy

What this is

A dedicated surface for a person's rights over their data: an audited export of their record, and a deliberate erasure workflow.

What it does

Export produces a readable record that excludes anyone else's shared-matter material. Erasure is confirmed against the exact record, blocked by legal holds, and leaves an append-only audit skeleton so the practice can always account for what happened.

Worth noticing

The caution is the feature. Deleting a person's data is made deliberately harder than reading it, in exactly the ways the obligations require.

Screenshot of the data-subject rights surface: audited export on one side and the safeguarded erasure workflow on the other.

Open the console, then choose Data rights → Taken from the review copy as it stands today.

The path from here

The next stage is observed use, then an informed launch decision.

Three steps, each paced by you. None of them is a formality, and none of them is a launch.

  1. Your review and feedback

    This discussion: your reaction to what is in place, to the working name, and to the visual direction.

  2. A hands-on walkthrough, held separately

    You operate the system yourself in a safe training environment set up for the purpose, on sample material only. It is a genuine working session in which you run each core task at your own hand; it is not a formality, and it is not a live launch.

  3. An evidence-led launch decision

    Going live is a separate, deliberate decision that stays with you, taken only once the review and the walkthrough have shown the system behaving as it should.

Your input

Four decisions will focus the next review.

These are invitations to react, not papers to sign. A first instinct on each is enough.

  1. The name

    Does Surman Mediation Practice feel right as the working name, or is there a name you would rather see tried?

  2. The direction

    Of the three routes shown on the pages that follow, is there one you would like refined? If none feels right, what is missing from all three?

  3. The last public inputs

    The portrait you approve, the wording and contact details you want made public, and anything else you would like the practice site to represent.

  4. The hands-on session

    A date and a format that suit you for the separate training and review session, so it can be prepared properly.

Identity

The identity has one job.

It must make a difficult first contact feel safe, without making the practice look soft, generic, therapeutic, or corporate. The useful tension is calm personal authority: confidential enough for family matters, rigorous enough for the legal and financial consequences.

  1. First contactWould a person at one of the hardest moments of their life feel safe sending the enquiry?
  2. AuthorityDoes it carry a barrister’s seniority without falling into a law-firm template?
  3. FitDoes it feel like you, and like Hong Kong, rather than like anywhere?

The three pages that follow show the same page in different clothes: identical wording, identical structure, so that everything that changes is the identity. Each is a static impression, not a live page, and none of it is final artwork.

Route 01 of 03

Mediation Compass

Current working direction · in the build today

The signal

Clear direction, calm judgement, a held process.

Strong when

It holds warmth and authority in one frame: reassuring at first contact, serious where it counts. It is also the direction the build already wears, so it is proven across the public site, the operator console, and the fee-note PDF.

Watch for

Its restraint is the point. Decorated further, midnight and brass could drift corporate; the discipline of the rule system is what keeps it personal.

Type

A literary serif for names and headings; a plain humanist sans for everything spoken.

Palette

  • #101820
  • #FAF8F1
  • #D7B56D
  • #6A8789
  • #CCC6B9
Request a call

Family & Matrimonial Mediation · Hong Kong

A calm, structured way through family disagreement.

Confidential mediation with Giles Surman: Barrister at Law, CEDR-accredited mediator.

Request an introductory callHow mediation works

Admiralty, Hong Kong · By appointment, in person or by Zoom

Midnight and pearl held by a brass rule, with a measured teal beneath. Confident without being corporate.

Route 02 of 03

Harbour Neutral

Static alternate · for discussion only

The signal

A measured horizon: place, balance, forward movement.

Strong when

It roots the practice in Hong Kong with seniority and calm, and it sits most naturally alongside the banks, chambers, and institutions your clients already know. The harbour is implied, never literal.

Watch for

The place cue needs restraint; taken literally it becomes a postcard. The blue must stay measured, or the whole practice starts to read civic rather than personal.

Type

An elegant transitional serif for names; a compact grotesk for interface and working screens.

Palette

  • #202124
  • #1E6F83
  • #D7ECEC
  • #C59A3D
  • #FBFAF6
Request a call

Family & Matrimonial Mediation · Hong Kong

A calm, structured way through family disagreement.

Confidential mediation with Giles Surman: Barrister at Law, CEDR-accredited mediator.

Request an introductory callHow mediation works

Admiralty, Hong Kong · By appointment, in person or by Zoom

Ink on warm white, a sea-glass field for the welcome, harbour blue carrying the action. Senior, placed, unhurried.

Route 03 of 03

Measured Counsel

Static alternate · for discussion only

The signal

Structured, bounded, professionally held.

Strong when

The most formal of the three: barrister credibility and decision support, with authority carried by whitespace rather than by colour. Strongest where referrals come through solicitors and financial advisers.

Watch for

Formality can read severe to separating families. The generous space, and the warmth of the writing inside it, must carry the reassurance the palette deliberately withholds.

Type

A sharp didone serif for the wordmark; a quiet, even sans beneath it.

Palette

  • #6E283A
  • #1D2328
  • #F8F4EC
  • #B88A32
Request a call

Family & Matrimonial Mediation · Hong Kong

A calm, structured way through family disagreement.

Confidential mediation with Giles Surman: Barrister at Law, CEDR-accredited mediator.

Request an introductory callHow mediation works

Admiralty, Hong Kong · By appointment, in person or by Zoom

Oxblood and graphite on rice paper, set centred with deliberate space. Formal authority, softened by whitespace, not colour.

Identity · side by side

Three routes, one choice to focus.

Current working direction

Mediation Compass

Clear direction, calm judgement, a held process.

Choose this to keep refining what the build already wears: warmth and authority held in balance.

Static alternate · discussion only

Harbour Neutral

Hong Kong place, seniority, restrained confidence.

Choose this to lead with place and institutional calm: the practice as a Hong Kong fixture.

Static alternate · discussion only

Measured Counsel

Formal authority, softened by space.

Choose this to lead with formal, barrister-led authority for a referral-driven practice.

Our steer

Refine Mediation Compass. It holds the balance the practice needs between warmth and rigour, and it has already survived contact with every real surface of the system, so refining it is the shortest path to finished artwork.

Harbour Neutral is the strongest alternate if you want the practice to feel more institutional; Measured Counsel if you want it more formal still. The choice stays yours, and changing direction now is deliberately cheap: every built surface takes its identity from one central setting. None of the three is final artwork until you say so.

The next controlled step

We can move forward deliberately, with you in control.

  1. Choose a direction to refine, or tell us what is missing from all three.
  2. Pass over the last public inputs: the portrait, wording, and contact details you approve.
  3. Sit the separate hands-on review session, at a date and in a format that suit you.
  4. Then decide, on the evidence of that session, whether to progress through the remaining launch gates.

Nothing goes live until you have seen it work, worked it yourself, and said so.