Mr. Sriram Panchu has been in the forefront of the mediation movement in India, and is an internationally recognized Indian mediator.
He is an alumnus of the Government Law College, Bombay. He commenced practice in 1976 at the Madras High Court and was designated a Senior Advocate in 1996. His field of law practice is constitutional and commercial law, and he has appeared pro bono in several significant public interest.

For almost thirty years he has been in the forefront of the mediation movement in India. In 2005, he set up India’s first court – annexed mediation centre at the Madras High Court, and has assisted the Supreme Court and other High Courts to do so. He has trained over a thousand mediators. His books on mediation are Settle for More (2007) and Mediation Practice & Law (2011 and 2015) and the Commercial Mediation Monograph (2019).

He has mediated a large number of complex and high-value commercial disputes in India and abroad. He has also been appointed by the Supreme Court of India to mediate significant public disputes; this includes a border dispute between the States of Assam and Nagaland, and a dispute within the Parsi community in Bombay over a ban on priests.

Mr. Panchu is a former member of the National Legal Services Authority of India, (NALSA) and Founder President of the national association Mediators India.

He was a Director of the International Mediation Institute (IMI) and is on the panel of senior mediators of national and international institutions. He heads The Mediation Chambers which offers a range of mediation services. He serves on the committees of several public charitable and social organisations.

In December 2018, the Bar Association of India conferred on him its Lawyers of India Day Award of Honour and Distinction. In March 2019, he was appointed on a three-member panel to mediate the Ayodhya Ram Babri Masjid - Ram Janambhoomi dispute.