Location Maps Are Now Always Available on the Website

NEWSLETTER : JUNE 2012

Programme

Unless marked otherwise, the following meetings are free to members and guests.

Location maps are now always available on the website.

All are welcome but for those meetings where the organiser’s telephone or email is given,

it would be helpful if you could please let them know of your intention to attend.

London

Tuesday, “How much are you claiming? Court-crafted methods of limiting recovery of damages”

12 June Speaker:Roger Ter Haar QC and Rebecca Taylor (Crown Office Chambers)

Chairman:Ronan Champion

Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1 6.15pm

Thursday, Joint Junior Organisations’ Boat Trip 2012

28 June Venue: Temple Pier, Thames, London6.15pm

The Junior Committee of the Society of Construction Law, RICS matrics London and the Chartered Institute of Building Novus London present the joint junior organisations’ boat trip on the River Thames. Cost just £25.00 (including VAT).

Tuesday, “Could do better- thoughts on improving some aspects of international arbitration”

10 JulyJoint SCL and Society of Construction Arbitrators Event

Speaker:Richard Fernyhough QC

Chairman:John Tackaberry QC

Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1 6.30pm

Tuesday, “Construction Procurement in the Public Sector”

4 September Speaker:Denise Bower, University of Leeds

Chairman:Dr David Mosey, Trowers & Hamlins LLP

Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1 6.15pm

Monday, SCL, TeCSA and TECBAR International Conference

24 September “Unlocking Disputes: Challenges in Construction Litigation & Arbitration”

Venue: Institution of Engineering Technology London, 2 Savoy Place,

London WC2R 0BL8.30am

This unique conference, hosted by the Technology & Construction Court, TECBAR, TeCSA and the Society of Construction Law will bring together construction lawyers and practitioners from across the world to discuss contemporary issues in construction law and dispute resolution. The conference, which commemorates the opening of the brand new High Court Rolls Building in London, will conclude with a Drinks reception at the RollsBuilding, and at a dinner at the Royal Courts of Justice.

Keynote speeches from the Judiciary include Lord Dyson (Supreme Court, London), Lord Justice Jackson (Court of Appeal, London) and Sir Anthony May (President of SCL and TECBAR).

Tuesday, The President's Reception

9 October Venue: Ironmonger's Hall, Shaftesbury Place, Barbican,

London EC2Y 8AA 6.30pm

Birmingham

Tuesday,“Interpretation of Contracts- The Impact of recent developments on interpretation

18 September of contracts on adjudications and arbitrations

Speakers: Isabel Hitching and Elizabeth Boon, Crown OfficeChambers

Chairman:Nichola Vine

Venue:Shakespeares, Somerset House, Temple Street,

Birmingham B2 5DJ 5.45 for 6pm

Organiser:

Attendance is free. To reserve a place please contact

Bristol

Wednesday, “EU Procurement”

30 MaySpeaker: Michael Bowsher QC

Chairman: Tom Wrzesien

Venue: Bristol Hotel, Prince Street, Bristol BS1 4QF5:45 for 6pm

Organiser: Tom Wrzesien

Thursday, “Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!”

13 SeptemberSpeaker:Mark Klimt, Fishburns LLP

Chairman: Peter Mansfield, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP

Venue: Bristol Hotel, Prince Street, Bristol BS1 4QF5:45 for 6pm

Organiser: Tom Wrzesien

A seminar on fee disputes and their interaction with counterclaims. There is a somewhat artificial separation between a consultant pressing for its fees and the counterclaim for negligence / breach of duty that this often elicits. Most Insurers will stress that decisions on fees are entirely the province of the insured consultant, but in reality the two are linked. The seminar will discuss the artificial divide and give practical tips on how a consultant can put themselves in the best position to claim fees and to protect against counterclaims.

Cardiff

Tuesday, The Increased Need for Oral Advocacy Skills following the Construction Act 2009

3 JulySpeaker:Peter Gracia

Venue: Morgan Cole Solicitors, Bradley Court, Park Place

Cardiff CF10 3DP 5.45 for 6.15

Organiser:

East Anglia

Wednesday“Construction industry dispute resolution. A look through the crystal ball…”

27 JuneSpeaker:Paul Darling QC

Venue:Mills & Reeve LLP, 112 Hills Road,

Cambridge CB2 1PH 6.00pm

Organiser:

Eire

Monday, Joint Meeting of the Society of Chartered Surveyors in Ireland and the SCL

15 October“The Interpretation of Contracts – Common Law Principles”

Speaker:Finola McCarthy

Venue: Rochestown Park Hotel, Rochestown Road, Douglas,

Cork 6.15 for 6.30 pm

Organiser:

Friday, SCL Lunch in Dublin

7 December Speaker:Micheal O'Muircheartaigh

Venue: CrokePark Stadium, Cusack Suite, Jones Road,

Dublin 3, Ireland12.00 for 1.00pm

Organiser:

Cost £75 per head, including VAT. Block bookings by firms will be limited to 2 tables each. All places will be allocated on a first paid, first served basis. Each table will seat 10 people. CrokePark Stadium Tour: £5.00 per head.

Kent

Wednesday, Method in Madness: Ascertainment of Disruption Claims

7 December Speaker:Chris Ennis

Venue:The Brew House Hotel, 1 Warwick Park, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 5TA 5.30pm for 6.00pm

Chairman:Keith Kirkwood

Organiser:

Leeds

Friday, SCL Lunch in Leeds

14 SeptemberVenue: Leeds Marriott Hotel, 4 Trevelyan Square, Boar Lane,

Leeds LS1 6ET 12.30 for 1pm

Organiser:

Bookings are open to non SCL members. All places will be allocated on a first paid, first served basis. Cost £65 including VAT.

Scotland

Friday, SCL Lunch in Scotland

5 October Organiser:

See attached flyer

Sheffield/Derby/Nottingham

Tuesday“Understanding delays on construction projects, the use of computer modelling: the

23 October avatar approach.”

Speakers:Gary Martin and David Tatham of Ramskill Martin

Venue: Hallmark Hotel, Midland Road, DerbyDE1 2SG 6 for 6.15pm

Chair:Jocelyn Taylor

Organiser:

Further events are listed at

We are keen to receive suggestions for speakers and topics both for the London and the Regional programmes:- Please send your ideas to: ; ; ; and ;

Request for assistance in the regions

We are currently looking for representatives to assist in two regions Sheffield/Derby/Nottingham and also in Milton Keynes. If you are interested, or wish to find out more email ourVice-Chair, Jocelyn Taylor

From the Chairman

On 16th May we held our AGM and annual member’s dinner and a very successful and well supported evening it was. I am pleased to announce that our accounts, our auditors and our redrafted constitution were all approved unanimously.

Many thanks to all of you who stood for election. My congratulation go out to were Julian Bailey, Paul Battrick, Ronan Champion, Isabel Hitching, Shy Jackson, Hamish Lal, Jonathan Pawlowski and Mark Wheeler who were all elected to council. As always the voting was very tight and my commiserations go out to those who just missed election. Do please try again next year. My thanks also go out to those retiring Council members, Barry Milton, Nick Gould and Peter Phillippo for all of the support they have given to SCL over the years. It is very much appreciated.

At the AGM I gave an update to those present of our progress over the last year which I repeat below:

Membership: Current members – 2,117 representing 73 countries worldwide(1,716 full members and 403 overseas members). Some 30 new members are applying to join each month. These statistics are for the UK Society only. The other societies around the world now have a membership of over 2,500. This would give a worldwide membership of approaching 5,000.
Papers: Since last year’s AGM we have published 19 papers covering topics such as “The Regulation of Construction Experts after Jones and Caney” and “When the Adjudicator gets it horribly wrong”.
London: In the past year there has been a full complement (12 in no.) of first rate talks by speakers including Mr Justice Ramsey, Her Honour Frances Kirkham, Sir Anthony May and His Honour Judge Thornton.
Regions: A year in which many new co-ordinators have been finding their feet. New regions have been established in both East Anglia and Kent, and we have a new proactive team in Bristol. No less than 48 talks have been held throughout the country in the various regions during the year.
Europe: An excellent conference was held in Frankfurt in October attended by delegates from over 17 European countries. There is a new direction and enthusiasm within the individual SCL’s, with a growth in SCL numbers around Europe. The ESCL team has started work on a European book looking at the differences in construction law across Europe.
International: The Society of Construction Law’s International Conference was held in Melbourne last week, and was attended by over 260 delegates representing 22 countries around the globe. Over the last year we have worked closely with our sister societies around the world including those in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, the Gulf and Mauritius, and have strengthened our relationships. The Latin American and Caribbean societies are now up and running and took part in the International Conference. China, India, South Africa and Egypt are all making good progress. We have also strengthened our association with both the AmericanCollege of Construction Litigators (ACCL) and the CanadianCollege of Construction Litigators (CCCL).
The Junior SCL continues to grow, and we hosted our usual range of events including a site visit, Christmas lecture and the very successful Joint Organisations Junior Boat Trip on the Thames in July, attended this year by 150 people. We held two successful Junior SCL debates in Bristol which were each attended by over 40 delegates.
Social: This has been a bumper year for SCL social events. We had the largest turnout ever for the Brewery Lunch, 650. Other events included the Brewery Dinner, 315; the Scottish Lunch, 140; the Leeds Lunch, 267; the Dublin Lunch, 157 and the Bristol Lunch, 122.

Ethics: Following the coming into force of the Bribery Act 2010 and the publishing of government guidance on protective procedures commercial organisations can put in place to address and manage the risks, the Ethics Sub-Committee arranged for top criminal counsel Louise Delahunty, who also gave evidence to the Parliamentary Select Committee on the new legislation, to address SCL in London on 6 September 2011.
Advocacy Training: This year saw the successful re-launch of the Advocacy Course as a one-day, weekend exercise with guest speakers and workshops, with a heavy focus on adjudication advocacy, both written and oral. The course went well and there are tentative plans to run it again in the autumn.
Hudson Prize:The Judging Panel of the SCL Hudson Prize awarded a Second Prize for a paper entitled “The application of the EU procurement regime to section 106 agreements providing for Affordable Housing” by Antonio Rotolo, solicitor, Kent County Council. The paper was presented in London yesterday evening. The success of the Hudson prize is now being replicated around the globe, with a new “ESCL Prize”, a Malaysian “Vincent Powell Smith Prize”, as well as a Prize in Australia being launched this year along the same lines as the Hudson Prize.
University Grants: In the last financial year the University grants team has continued to distribute funds to assist the universities in the advancement of education in construction law. We have also donated funds to Bailli which provides invaluable information to many of our members. In addition, we have over the last year worked closely with the University of Plymouth in assisting in the designing of a module for teaching engineering students an appreciation of the practice of construction law throughout the life of a live construction project.
Review of Expert Evidence Best Practice: Over the last year the Society has formed a committee of members to look into Expert Evidence best practice. We have devised a set of 65 questions covering all aspects of expert evidence, and will be consulting as widely as possible across the industry on the use of experts in the resolution of construction disputes. We will publish a report in 2013 which Her Honour Frances Kirkham CBE has kindly agreed to draft on our behalf.
International Conference: SCL Council is working alongside TECBAR, TeCSA and the TCC to organise an international conference in London on 23rd and 24th September 2012 to commemorate the opening of the new RollsBuilding. Details of this event titled “Unlocking Disputes: Challenges in Construction Litigation and Arbitration” can be found on our website and in our newsletter.
Amendments to the Constitution:Council has reviewed and updated the wording of the constitution and was voted on and accepted at the AGM.
Finances – The one big change that we have made this year is the registering of the Society for VAT. This was a necessary move due to the level of our turnover. Richard will give full details of our finances in his report.

The preparations for our international conference on 23rd and 24th September are now well in hand and a further copy of our initial flyer is attached. Please do book early for all the events. The full brochure should be available next month. If anyone is interested in one of our sponsorship packages please contact Jill Ward over the next week. We have both Gold and Silver Sponsorship opportunities but these will be released on a first come first served basis.

I would also like to put in a special plug for Bailli. They have lost a lot of their government support and would welcome private contributions from firms and businesses. This is an extremely valuable service. If your firm or business is interested in assisting please do contact them.

I wish our two new regions East Anglian and Kent every success on their inaugural evenings. Paul Darling QC will be speaking on Wednesday 27th June in Cambridgeon “Construction industry dispute resolution. A look through the crystal ball” and in the Kent region Chris Ennis will be speaking at The Brew House Hotel in Tunbridge Wells on the 20th June. If you can make it please do turn up at these events.

Keith Kirkwood

Chairman

Election Results

Those elected to serve as Members of Council wereJulian Bailey, Paul Battrick, Ronan Champion, Isabel Hitching, Shy Jackson, Hamish Lal, Jonathan Pawlowski and Mark Wheeler. The election result was announced by SCL Chairman Keith Kirkwood at the Annual Dinner on 16 May. Congratulations were given to the winners and thanks were given to all who had put their names forward for election.

2011 SCL Hudson Prize Presentation

The annual presentation of the prize-winning paper took place at the National Liberal Club on the evening of Tuesday 15 May. Professor Anthony Lavers, Chairman of the Judging Panel, introduced Antonio Rotolo, who gave an excellent oral presentation of his paper. Antonio is an Engineering graduate from ImperialCollege who also obtained the M.Sc in Construction Law from King's College and is aSolicitor in the Procurement Team at Kent County Council. Senior colleagues from the Council were in the audience.The paper was entitled “The application of the EU procurement regime to section 106 agreements providing for Affordable Housing” and provided an interesting perspective on the applicability of the EU procurement regime toplanning agreements for the provision of low cost housing. Congratulating Antonio, Professor Lavers said that the judging panel had welcomed the choice oftopic, which linked construction law with planning law, reaffirming the policy that 'construction law' should be widely interpreted for the purposes of the competition. Antonio had been the first local authority lawyer to achieve success in the competition and it was to be hoped that other talented professionals in the public service will also be encouraged to enter. Details of the 2012 SCL Hudson Prize will be published in the July 2012 Newsletter and on the Society's web-site

Adjudication Advocacy Course

The Society is pleased to announce that it will again be holding an Adjudication Advocacy Training Course this autumn. Unlike in previous years, the course is open to all members of the Society who have no, or no significant advocacy experience. This includes junior counsel and pupil barristers as well as junior solicitors, together with construction professionals wishing to conduct their own advocacy in front of other tribunals, such as mediation or adjudication (although preference will be given to legal representatives).

The Course will give each advocate the opportunity to present and oppose interim applications in a range of construction law scenarios, and the emphasis will be on hearings replicating business in adjudication. The course is open only to SCL members. For further details, contact Hamish Lal at

Members Benefit

We are pleased to announce CONSTRUCTION LAW, a brand new three-volume book by Julian Bailey, designed to address the major issues arising out of construction and engineering projects.