Contract and advisory

We have extensive experience drafting, negotiating and advising on the terms of contracts for a range of clients covering transport, infrastructure, healthcare, retail, housing, hotels and leisure and education projects.

We advise on a wide range of construction contracts including all main industry standard form contracts (JCT, NEC, FIDIC, GC/Works, IChemE) in addition to drafting and negotiating bespoke main and sub-contracts to support our clients commercial requirements

Our expertise covers major capital works through to repairs and refurbishment and asset management, from project inception to the end of a building’s lifecycle.

Consultancy appointments

We are experienced at drafting, negotiating and reviewing consultancy appointments (both bespoke and standard form such as RIBA, JCT, NEC) for a variety of consultants including architects, surveyors and engineers.

When acting for professional consultants we seek to achieve a fair balance of risk with the client whilst providing practical advice tailored to the requirements of each consultant. When negotiating and advising consultancy appointments we look at core standard of care, limitations on liability, the fee payment mechanism, insurance levels and protection of intellectual property rights

Due diligence

We work alongside our commercial real estate and corporate teams providing due diligence on construction documents for funders, purchasers, and tenants to identify any potential pitfalls in the construction documents and ensuring that our clients’ interests are protected.

Novation and assignments

Effective provision for novation is a key contractual tool for clients in planning, progressing and dealing with issues arising on construction projects. As design and build procurement is one of the most popular forms of procurement within the industry, our team has considerable experience of incorporating novation into the structure of design and build procured projects. We regularly advise on novation policy in terms of project structuring and risk profiling and drafting and negotiating novation agreements on behalf of employers and end user clients.

PI Insurance, brokers and insurers

We have extensive experience of acting for professional indemnity insurers, brokers and their insureds. We provide front end advice on the terms of the insured’s building contracts, professional appointments, collateral warranties and other security documents.

We also specialise in insurance dispute resolution, in particular the defence of construction professionals in complex, high value disputes. We advise on PI and D&C policy wordings and have provided numerous seminars and workshops on insurance law topics for PI insurers and brokers.