Shoosmiths LLP

Real Estate Construction

I am a construction and engineering lawyer with wide ranging experience of contract drafting and dispute resolution. I have previously worked in-house at the contractor, Taylor Woodrow (now part of Vinci) and at US consultant, AECOM, where I gained an insider’s perspective on the industry.

I have acted for developers, contractors, consultants and public bodies on a wide range of projects undertaken in the UK and abroad. This has involved giving strategic advice at the start of a project (procurement, risk analysis, drafting of contracts, framework agreements, bonds warranties and other ancillary documents), providing ad hoc commercial guidance as the project progresses, through to resolving, where required, complex disputes via negotiation, mediation, adjudication, arbitration and litigation.

Examples of contract drafting include:

• Strategic review of a developer’s approach to procurement, including drafting a suite of bespoke contracts and amendments;
• All aspects of the construction procurement for a multi-phase, award-winning residential scheme including a bespoke contract “call-down” agreement;
• Coordinated procurement of contractor and large consultant team for a major hotel/ residential development;
• Risk appraisal of consultant appointments and frameworks for domestic and international projects in oil & gas, urban master-planning, aerotropolis and hotel developments.

Examples of dispute experience include:

• Successful defence of three concurrent adjudication claims, including defeating one on the ground of the adjudicator’s lack of jurisdiction;
• Successful defence (following mediation) at a TCC trial of a claim by the production architect on a flagship regeneration project, arising from a letter of intent;
• Concurrent arbitrations up and down the contract chain against an employer and a subcontractor, arising from complex concrete defects in the diaphragm walling of the A406;
• Obtaining trial judgment in client’s favour in relation to claims arising from his oral contract for hotel renovation works.

Education : LLB (Hons) Business Law