Keating Chambers

Adam Walton specialises in domestic and international construction, engineering, energy, and professional negligence disputes. He accepts instructions to advise, draft, and provide representation at all stages of litigation or other dispute resolution process. Unusually for his year of call, a significant majority of Adam’s work is as sole counsel and many of his instructions come to him either as a product of his reputation or on a repeat basis.

Notable experience as sole counsel includes:

• Drafting the pleadings and acting for the claimant in an ongoing multi-party High Court (TCC) professional negligence claim, which relates to water ingress on a large development project.
• Several applications in both the county court and the High Court (TCC and Chancery Division), which notably include seeking injunctive relief (both on notice and ex parte), the inspection of property, relief from sanctions, permission to amend statements of case, and permission to add new parties.
• Drafting the pleadings and acting for a multinational cladding manufacturer in ongoing High Court (TCC) proceedings, which relate to alleged defects on a high-profile infrastructure project in Dubai.
• Defending a surveying firm in an adjudication, which raised issues of assignment, transferred loss, reasonable settlement, and professional negligence.
• Acting for a multinational corporation in ongoing High Court (Ch) proceedings against an insolvent contractor and its administrators.
• Providing ongoing strategic advice to a local council in relation to a high value dispute arising out of the 2016 JCT Measured Term.

Notable experience as junior counsel includes:

• Drafting the pleadings and acting as junior counsel to Paul Bury in two ongoing High Court (TCC) claims, which arise out of out of one of the largest development projects in Europe: one being a complex final account dispute, the other concerning an adjudication enforcement and related Part 8 proceedings.
• Acting as junior to counsel to Brenna Conroy in an ongoing multi-party claim which relates to defective work on a substantial Government-led development project.
• Acting as part of the counsel team led by Simon Hughes KC in a £400 million ICC Arbitration concerning a project in the Middle East.
• Drafting the pleadings and acting as junior counsel to Charlie Thompson in two ongoing High Court (TCC) claims: one concerning the defective design and installation of a substructure, the other raising novel issues of deceit, misrepresentation, and repudiation.

In addition to having worked with the JCT standard forms on numerous occasions, Adam has also worked with a wide variety of other standard form contracts, including the NEC and FIDIC, as well as bespoke construction contracts, insurance contracts, guarantees, and bonds.

Prior to joining Keating, Adam worked at the Law Commission of England and Wales as a Research Assistant and at the Court of Appeal as Lord Justice Coulson’s Judicial Assistant. Whilst working as a Judicial Assistant, Adam’s work was consistently lauded by members of the Court of Appeal for its quality and clarity; Lord Justice Coulson notably describing him as “incredibly clever” and “exceptionally good at identifying the issues at the heart of a case”.

Alongside being the holder of over ten awards and scholarships, Adam has also published work in several leading law journals; with a number of those published works going on to be cited in both leading textbooks and further academic pieces. Most notably, Adam’s work on scope of duty is cited in Chitty on Contracts, whilst his work on the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 is cited in Clerk and Lindsell on Torts. He is also a contributor to Keating on Construction Contracts.