before terms.
Agreement-making and non-adversarial dispute resolution for the resources, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure sectors.
We build the agreements that get projects developed — and resolve the impasses that stall them.
A project stalled by a stakeholder impasse costs $2–4 million per month:
- Carrying costs, lost revenue and capital servicing, as at 2026.
- Incurred before a lawyer sends a single letter.
- By application only.
- Deliberately small by design.
- Every matter led personally by a principal — Nick or Craig — never delegated to junior staff.
- Billed hourly while we scope the matter.
- Then a single fixed fee once its complexity is clear.
- Confidential and faster than a court process or an open-ended negotiation, structured to limit project delay and relational damage.
Two services. One framework.
Both run on the same six-stage method. The capacity differs: in dispute resolution Equipoise sits between the parties as a neutral; in stakeholder negotiation we act for the proponent. Never both on the same matter.
Agreement Making
Stakeholder negotiation and agreement making for projects that need consent before they need a contract. We convene the negotiation, earn the trust it depends on, and leave the parties with an agreement that holds long after it is signed.
Agreement making →
Dispute Resolution
Non-adversarial resolution of the disputes that have already stalled a project. Litigation can win the argument and still cost you the project — millions in legal spend, years of delay, and the relationships the next approval depends on.
Dispute resolution →
Human consensus begins where the technical case ends.
Two principals. Every matter.
Equipoise is deliberately small. Every matter is led by one of its two principals, both senior practitioners who have sat on the operator's side of the table, never a junior team.
Former CEO of a public mining company, an accredited mediator (Resolution Institute) and a lawyer admitted in NSW — on the Law Society of NSW register of approved lawyer mediators — and in South Africa.
A Magic Circle-trained disputes lawyer of twenty-five years and a mediator, admitted in England and Wales, Australia — on the Law Society of NSW register of solicitors — and South Africa.
Our Resolution Framework.
A six-stage method, built on principled negotiation. In dispute resolution Equipoise sits between the parties, facilitating but never representing. In stakeholder negotiation we act for you, negotiating directly with the parties whose agreement you need.
Set out the legal framework
Anchor both sides in what happens if talks fail.
Listen
Substantive negotiation begins on the stakeholder side; trust is earned before any commercial term is on the table.
Convene
Both parties in a shared room under ground rules that neutralise the adversarial frame.
Reframe
Positions become interests; interests become options; the unwinnable argument becomes a shared problem.
Negotiate
Principled negotiation anchored in objective criteria, with each option tested against the courtroom alternative.
Document
Agreements drafted to bind, to last, and to survive the staff turnover that defines most projects.
Three things set this apart from a conventional mediation or a legal process: it opens by setting out the legal framework, so both sides know what happens if talks fail before a single commercial term is discussed; the work then starts on the stakeholder side rather than at a convened table; and cultural competence is treated as core practice rather than an add-on, particularly in native title and cultural heritage matters.
The framework came out of a major Australian infrastructure easement dispute — one of seven anonymised matters set out in our White Paper, with what each one cost.
The same six stages are used before a dispute exists, to build the agreement in the first place — see agreement making.
Where this applies.
Equipoise & Co works in every Australian state, in six categories where conventional legal approaches most often win the argument and lose the project. Land access, native title and cultural heritage run across both services — we build the agreement, or we resolve the impasse when one was never properly built. Easements and linear infrastructure sits with stakeholder negotiation; coexistence, environmental and community matters, and commercial and contract disputes sit with dispute resolution. The principals are admitted in New South Wales, in England and Wales, and in South Africa, and take matters outside Australia on the same terms.
Land Access & Compensation
Breaking the deadlock on private-landholder access for resources, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure operations, and the compensation that comes with it, before access turns into litigation.
Explore this area →
Easements & Linear Infrastructure
Easements and access across multiple landholdings, co-location and third-party land, negotiated as a program rather than one site at a time.
Explore this area →
Native Title & Cultural Heritage
Convening and resolving negotiations between operators and Native Title parties, and the cultural heritage matters that run alongside them. Built on cultural competence rather than legalese.
Explore this area →
Coexistence Between Mining, Energy & Renewables
Overlapping tenure and operational conflict where two projects compete for the same ground. We resolve who builds what, where, and on what terms.
Explore this area →
Environmental & Community Disputes
Resolving standoffs between projects and the communities, regulators and groups raising substantive environmental or social concerns, before objection hardens into a public campaign.
Explore this area →
Commercial & Contract Disputes
Mediating disputes between operators and their contractors, suppliers, offtake and trading counterparties and joint-venture partners, including multi-party claims, before they run to judgment.
Explore this area →
The painwe relieve
These figures come from matters our principals have led. Seven of them are set out as anonymised case narratives — a platinum operation, an Asia Pacific exploration project, a major Australian easement dispute, an arrested bulk carrier, a financial-services mis-disclosure claim and a three-party mining-equipment claim — with what each one cost before anyone tried talking.
Read the patterns behind the numbers →Any side of the table — and those who advise them.
In a dispute we are not retained by one side to defeat another; we are engaged to resolve the impasse itself. In a negotiation we act for the proponent, on the agreements a project depends on. Either way the work only holds if everyone with a stake in the outcome is dealt with straight.
Resources, energy (including renewables), telecommunications and infrastructure companies
Boards, CEOs and general managers, chief legal officers, in-house counsel and social-performance teams negotiating with, or deadlocked against, communities, landholders or NGOs.
Reaches the agreement, or clears the deadlock, without spending the relationship the next approval depends on.
Landholders & community groups
Landowners affected by Australian mining and energy projects, and the communities around them — where being genuinely heard is the first step toward a durable agreement.
Gives you a seat at a table where your interests are worked out, not a process run over the top of you.
Native title parties
Traditional owners, elders and Prescribed Bodies Corporate (PBCs) negotiating native title agreements and cultural heritage arrangements with projects operating on their country.
Negotiation conducted with cultural competence as core practice, on your terms and in your time.
NGOs, industry bodies & associations
Non-government organisations and peak bodies seeking a resolved outcome rather than a prolonged public fight that hardens positions on every side.
Converts a public campaign into a private negotiation that can actually change the outcome.
Consultants & law firms
Social-performance and regional managers at advisory firms, and law-firm partners, who bring in an independent resolver when a matter has moved beyond ordinary engagement.
A neutral you can bring in without ceding the client relationship or your own mandate.
Calm is the Weapon
A book by Nick van der Hoven, expected 2027. Drawn from twenty years of stories from inside the resources sector and the rooms where the difficult agreements were made.
Read more →"Most negotiators arrive armed. The ones who win the impossible rooms arrive composed. The story of how I learned the difference began on a plastic chair under a tin roof, in a rural village in Africa, in the fifth week of a labour strike that should have closed the mine."
The things people ask first.
What is Social Licence Resolution?
A specialist practice that does two things: it negotiates the stakeholder agreements resources, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure projects depend on, and it resolves the impasses that arise where no such agreement was built. A project’s social licence is the ongoing acceptance of it by the landholders, communities and regulators around it — distinct from its legal right to operate, and capable of being lost while that legal right is retained.
- What it produces — durable agreements, or a resolved impasse where one has already formed.
- Who the parties are — landholders, Indigenous communities, regulators and local groups.
- When it applies — before a deadlock forms, or before an existing one becomes litigation.
- What it aims at — preserving the relationships the next approval depends on, rather than winning an argument and losing the project.
What is the difference between your two services?
Timing, and the capacity we are engaged in. Both run the same six-stage framework. In dispute resolution we sit between the parties as a neutral; in stakeholder negotiation we act for the proponent. We never do both on the same matter, and the capacity is recorded in writing before work begins.
- Agreement making — engaged before a deal is struck, to negotiate the agreement itself and build the consent it rests on.
- Dispute resolution — engaged once a project is already deadlocked, to resolve the impasse before it reaches court.
- Capacity — six to eight matters a year across both, so a principal leads every one personally.
How is this different from running the negotiation ourselves, or going to court?
Both alternatives put one party’s representative at the centre of the process, which limits what the other side will say. Equipoise differs on four counts.
- Confidential — not a matter of public record.
- Faster — materially quicker than a court process, and quicker than a negotiation that keeps reopening.
- Durable — an agreement both sides will keep, not a judgement one side must enforce or a deal one side resents.
- Clear on capacity — in a dispute we sit between the parties, facilitating rather than representing either one; in a negotiation we act for you and say so. What we never do is both on the same matter.
Who can engage Equipoise?
Dispute resolution, any side: we are engaged to resolve the impasse itself, not to defeat one party on behalf of another. Stakeholder negotiation is engaged by the proponent, and in that capacity we act for you.
- Operators and proponents — resources, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure companies.
- Landholders and communities — those a project directly affects.
- Native title parties, NGOs and industry bodies — traditional owners, PBCs and peak bodies.
- Consultants and law firms — bringing in an independent convenor once a matter has moved beyond ordinary engagement.
What areas do you work in?
Six categories, across the resources, energy (including renewables), telecommunications and infrastructure sectors. Land access and native title run across both services; the others sit with one or the other. Australia is our home jurisdiction; the principals are admitted in New South Wales, in England and Wales, and in South Africa, and take matters outside Australia on the same terms.
- Land access and compensation — private-landholder access, and what is paid for it.
- Native title and cultural heritage — agreements with native title parties, and the heritage matters alongside them.
- Coexistence — overlapping tenure between mining, energy and renewables.
- Easements and linear infrastructure — routes across many landholdings, negotiated as a program.
- Environmental and community — standoffs with communities, regulators and objector groups.
- Commercial and contract disputes — operators against contractors, suppliers, offtake counterparties and JV partners.
How much does an engagement cost?
Engagements are priced in two steps, so you are not asked to fix a fee before anyone knows the shape of the matter.
- Scoping phase — billed hourly, so you pay only for what the early diagnosis actually takes.
- Balance of the matter — a single fixed fee, agreed once the complexity is clear.
- Capacity — a small number of matters each year across both services, so a principal leads every one personally.
How long does a matter take?
It depends on the matter. Agreement making is generally shorter than resolving an impasse that has already hardened, and both are materially faster than a court process. The engagement runs in three phases across the six stages of our framework.
- Framing and listening — setting out what happens if talks fail, then earning trust on the stakeholder side.
- Convening and reframing — getting both parties into a shared room, and turning positions into interests.
- Negotiating and documenting — testing options against objective criteria, then a binding agreement built to last.
If your situation warrants a conversation.
Equipoise & Co takes six to eight matters per year across both services, by application only. Everything you share is confidential and goes directly to Nick, the principal, and you will hear back within five business days. If you believe your matter needs to be one of them, answering the questions below will give us the context we need to respond.