Construction, Infrastructure & Energy

Front-end contracting and back-end claims across the built environment.

Construction, infrastructure and energy projects require careful coordination of contractual obligations, technical requirements and commercial risk. We advise developers, employers, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants and suppliers throughout the project lifecycle.

Our work includes drafting, reviewing and negotiating construction contracts, consultancy agreements, subcontracts, supply arrangements, guarantees and other project documentation. We also advise on payment mechanisms, variations, extensions of time, delay, defects, liquidated damages, termination and calls on performance or advance-payment guarantees.

Where disputes arise, we assist with negotiation, mediation, arbitration and court proceedings. Early assessment of the contract, project records and available remedies allows us to protect the client’s position while managing cost, delay and disruption to the project.

What we do

• Contract drafting and negotiation — Main contracts, subcontracts, consultancy appointments and design agreements on FIDIC and bespoke forms, with attention to payment, notices, variations, liability caps and the dispute clause.
• Extension of time and delay claims — Preparation and defence of extension of time claims, concurrent delay analysis, and the programme evidence that makes or breaks them.
• Prolongation and disruption costs — Claims for time-related cost, loss of productivity and acceleration, together with the quantum evidence needed to prove them rather than merely assert them.
• Variations and change — Entitlement to and valuation of variations, whether instructed, constructive or disputed, including claims for work carried out without a formal instruction.
• Payment, certification and bonds — Interim and final payment disputes, certification failures, retention release, and advance payment and performance bond calls, including urgent applications to restrain an unjustified call.
• Defects and decennial liability — Defective work claims during the defects liability period, and structural defect claims under the decennial liability regime, which holds contractors and designers responsible for ten years from completion and cannot simply be contracted away.
• Termination and suspension — Termination for default and for convenience, suspension for non-payment, and the consequences of getting the procedure wrong, which is the most expensive mistake available in a construction contract.
• Infrastructure and energy projects — EPC, O&M and concession agreements for utilities, transport and power projects including renewables, together with the interface and grid agreements that sit alongside them.
• Blacklisting and regulatory issues — Challenging blacklisting and contractor registration decisions, and advising on the licensing and classification requirements applicable to contractors and consultants.
• Dispute resolution — Arbitration and litigation of construction disputes, and the pre-arbitral steps of engineer’s determinations, dispute boards and amicable settlement periods that must be observed before either.

Who we act for

Employers, developers and government-related entities, main contractors and subcontractors, engineers and consultants, suppliers, and project financiers and insurers.

Common questions

We did not serve a notice in time. Is the claim lost?

Not necessarily, but it is harder. Much turns on the wording of the condition precedent and on how the parties actually conducted themselves afterwards.

What is decennial liability?

A ten-year liability imposed on contractors and designers for structural defects and collapse, running from final delivery or a formal handover of the works. It cannot simply be excluded by contract.

The employer has called our performance bond. Can we stop it?

Possibly, where the call is fraudulent or plainly unjustified, but the threshold is high and the application must be immediate.

Should our contract choose arbitration or the courts?

For significant projects, arbitration is usually preferable for expertise and confidentiality. For smaller works between local parties with local assets, the courts can be quicker and cheaper.