Hugh James

Construction, energy and projects team.

Ioan is head of the firm’s business services division. This division comprises all of the teams which provide transactional, contractual, advisory and dispute resolution advice to businesses and organisations across various sectors. Ioan also is Head of our Construction, Energy and Projects team and has spent almost 20 years advising clients on non-contentious and contentious construction matters. He has extensive experience in the construction and engineering sector and has acted in a number of high value and complicated disputes.

Ioan’s role involves advising the firm’s key clients on some of the most significant construction projects and disputes in Wales and the wider UK. Ioan and his team act for a wide range of clients, ranging from government and public authorities to banks, developers and contractors.

Some notable projects include advising on:
politically sensitive, high value and complex transport and construction projects for the public sector;
a supply contract for the supply of steel for the construction of the new nuclear facility at Hinckley Point, Maidenhead, England;
a multimillion pound claim brought by one of the UK’s largest energy companies arising from an alleged EWI system failure on a large housing estate in the UK;
a high profile dispute arising out of the Mersey Gateway project.

Ioan heads up the firm’s public sector practice and manages the relationship between Hugh James and key public sector organisations, such as the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales.

Regularly advising on dispute resolution, Ioan is very familiar with adjudication, and, as an accredited mediator, he is familiar with the range of alternative dispute resolution processes.

Ioan’s mining practice has also developed further during 2017-8, with Ioan and his team advising SRK, consultants for the resource and mining industry, on a number of international disputes.

Ioan has almost 20 years’ experience advising the public and private sectors on issues relating to construction law and is widely recognised as an expert in his field.

He advises clients on procurement and the contractual documents involved in construction and engineering projects, including PPP and PFI deals, and more recently the Mutual Investment Model (MIM) as well as high value renewable energy projects.

Ioan has particular expertise in arbitration and adjudication, alternative dispute resolution, professional negligence, energy, procurement, project documentation and standard forms of contract (JCT, NEC, ICE, FIDIC, GCWorks, PPC2000, RIBA, BPF, ACE, CIC).

Ioan is a member of the following institutions and societies:

Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
Society of Construction Law
Adjudication Society.

Trained at Hugh James, Cardiff. After qualifying specialised in commercial and property litigation for two years. Left for Laytons in Bristol in 2001 to specialise in construction law. Made an associate in 2003. Joined Clarke Willmott’s construction team as a senior associate in 2005 when the construction team moved there from Laytons. Returned to Hugh James in 2006 as a partner in its construction and projects team.

Welsh; French (conversational).

Chartered Institute of Directors; Society of Construction Law; Adjudication Society.

Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr, Gowerton; Swansea; University of Wales, Aberystwyth (1994 LLB Honours), MSc (Econ), International Politics (1995).

Golf, rugby.