As well as his work in claims and disputes, John has worked on the non-contentious aspects of some important and high-profile projects as shown below.
August 2022 - December 2023
Appointed by Asian Development Bank as Consultant in Dispute Avoidance and Adjudication and Claims Advice on port projects in the Asia-Pacific Region – the Bank’s intention was to avoid claims by the Contractor and to avoid terminating his contract – completion of the port facilities was important to the local population – the situation was resolved and the Parties were able to continuing working together.
January 2014 - August 2016
Contractual advice to owners of an academic building, who wanted their project completed, but without the Contractor starting an adjudication and without terminating the contract and being faced with claims for wrongful termination – adjudication was avoided and settlement reached.
May 1997 - June 1997
Advised international contractor in preparation of bid for waste-water scheme in Bucharest, Romania – this required speaking in French to the local project managers employed by the water and sewerage ministry and advising the tenderer on the risks, which included avoiding clashing with the new metro under construction.
May 1988 - December 1991
Drafting contracts and subcontracts, often for novel contracting strategies, such as design, manage and construct, on high-profile projects; drafting warranties, novations, consultancy agreements and other contract documents for clients including oil and pharmaceutical companies, the PSA (that is the UK’s then Property Services Agency) and utility companies.
May 1988 - December 1991
The most famous project was the Garden Festival Wales 1992 at Ebbw Vale. This required drafting of the novation agreements for consultants already working on the designs to transfer them to agreements with the Festival Company. This involved working with the legal officers of the District and County Councils. This was followed by the drafting of a design, manage and construct contract on which to engage the Prime Contractor, and the subsequent negotiating of the terms of the contract with the selected Contractor.
May 1988 - December 1991
Another high-profile project was the improvement of the Bristol Crown Court in England. The existing building had common boundary walls in other ownerships, and the extent of the work was difficult to define. In order to apportion risk fairly, a two-stage contract strategy was used. Part 1 was the enabling work, to establish what was involved in dealing with the adjoining walls and their owners. Part 2 was the main building work. This required the drafting of a special contract for Part 1 and a considerably amended version of the standard GC/Works/I Government Contract
May 1988 - December 1991
John also had to draft a design, manage and construct contract for an international pharmaceutical company, who wanted a new facility near Bristol. This required combining the wording of the then JCT Design and Build and Management Contracts. The main construction contract then had to be negotiated with the chosen Contractor.
May 1988 - December 1991
A similar type of design, manage and construct contract was drafted for a utility company, who wanted to use it on all of its new facilities throughout its area of operations in the UK
May 1988 - December 1991
John also drafted a bespoke contract for an oil company who wanted to have built a motorway service station, using the ICE 5th Conditions, but a lump sum version.
February 1981 - February 1985
This was a department, which specialised in contractual matters for all operations within an international construction group. The area covered stretched from the UK southwards to North Africa, undertaken by the Group’s subsidiaries in building, civil and marine engineering. Embraced all standard forms used in UK, as well as some bespoke forms, and a number of FIDIC and other overseas contracts.
February 1981 - February 1985
John’s department was responsible to vetting tender documents and advising on management as to the risks associated with the project. This required close reading and inspection of the tender documents, followed by a similar check when the various subsidiaries entered into their contracts.
February 1981 - February 1985
The civil and marine contracts involved docks, harbours, sea and river defences, water supply, drainage, sewerage, motorways, defence installations (some of them in other NATO countries), power stations, cross-country gas pipelines (in JV with Spie Batignolles), inland waterways and dredging.
February 1981 - February 1985
The building contracts in this period included hospitals, banks, hotels, major redevelopment of city centres, motorway service areas, factories and renovations of existing buildings.
February 1981 - 1985
The range of types of construction required knowledge of, and working with, the main forms of contract – ICE, JCT, GC/Works/1 and FIDIC together with the standard terms used by corporate bodies.
