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Construction & Engineering Disputes

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At CMS, we strive to spend more time looking outward at your world than inward at ours. As a leading and trusted adviser to the construction and engineering sectors, we aim to give you an advantage today by anticipating your challenges of tomorrow.

Our dedicated construction and engineering disputes team understands the particular commercial, technical and regulatory environment of the industry in which you work. We are focused on resolving disputes arising in these sectors, giving us a uniquely enhanced knowledge of your world and an unrivalled experience of resolving the kinds of disputes that arise in the commercial context these industries.

The team specialises in all forms of dispute management, avoidance and resolution including expert determination, adjudication, mediation, litigation and international arbitration (LCIA, ICC, UNCITRAL, DIAC and others).

The team is consistently ranked in the Global Arbitration Review as one of the world’s busiest international arbitration practices, we are experts in helping clients avoid formal disputes. So whether you foresee a problem arising and would like some guidance on the best course to steer, or whether you face litigation, international arbitration or other forms of dispute resolution, you are in safe hands with us.

Project Advisory and Risk Management

The team also offers a ‘Project Advisory and Risk Management’ service - offering advice on how to avoid disputes at every stage of the lifecycle for major construction and engineering projects. As the legal, contractual and regulatory environment in which major projects are delivered becomes ever more complex, proactive management of risk has become a critical part of delivery strategies.

Our team provides flexible support to help you maximise opportunities and manage time, cost and quality risks that have the potential to impact the successful outcome of a project. This early intervention by our team minimises your risk of a costly dispute, protecting your reputation and your relationship with clients.

Our services include analysis of documentation and procedures, producing proforma documents and communication strategies, delivery of teach-in workshops to project delivery and commercial teams, regular project surgeries and risk review workshops, telephone helpline providing real-time project advice and post completion reviews.

 

"They are construction gurus and very experienced in both domestic and international engineering disputes. They have some outstanding lawyers and they manage client expectations well."

Chambers, 2023

"The team is hard-working and they are experienced in dealing with challenging matters and technical litigation."

Chambers, 2023

"A very well resourced and slick operation, which can handle the largest and most complicated of claims."

Legal 500, 2023

"The CMS team is well organised and thorough. They are able to handle complex and sophisticated matters with ease."

Chambers, 2023

"Large team that is highly expert in both construction disputes and commercial aspects."

Legal 500, 2023

"They are thinking from the position of their client. They are trying to step into our shoes and understand our needs as a business."

Chambers, 2023

"The lawyers at CMS appreciate the need to contextualise their advice. We want to be told what the answer is, and CMS avoids sitting on the fence."

Chambers and Partners, 2020

"A 'fantastic group' and 'a team in which everyone is playing to their own excellent strengths'."

Chambers and Partners, 2020

"CMS provides an exceptional service in terms of legal analysis, prompt and efficient working and managing a highly complex matter while at the same time doing everything possible to assist the client in reaching a sensible compromise."

Legal 500, 2020

"The team combines an in-depth knowledge of the construction industry together with commercial pragmatism."

Legal 500, 2020

"Great client base and cover all aspects of construction law both domestically and internationally."

Legal 500, 2020

"CMS are undoubtedly one of the most pleasurable construction teams to work with. They are talented, user friendly, dedicated and incredibly knowledgeable."

Legal 500, 2020

"It is a confident and user-friendly team which roundly produces top-quality, commercial advice in tune with the business timescales we are working to.”

Chambers, 2018

"They are construction gurus and very experienced in both domestic and international engineering disputes. They have some outstanding lawyers and they manage client expectations well."

Chambers, 2023

"The team is hard-working and they are experienced in dealing with challenging matters and technical litigation."

Chambers, 2023

"A very well resourced and slick operation, which can handle the largest and most complicated of claims."

Legal 500, 2023

"The CMS team is well organised and thorough. They are able to handle complex and sophisticated matters with ease."

Chambers, 2023

"Large team that is highly expert in both construction disputes and commercial aspects."

Legal 500, 2023

"They are thinking from the position of their client. They are trying to step into our shoes and understand our needs as a business."

Chambers, 2023

"The lawyers at CMS appreciate the need to contextualise their advice. We want to be told what the answer is, and CMS avoids sitting on the fence."

Chambers and Partners, 2020

"A 'fantastic group' and 'a team in which everyone is playing to their own excellent strengths'."

Chambers and Partners, 2020

"CMS provides an exceptional service in terms of legal analysis, prompt and efficient working and managing a highly complex matter while at the same time doing everything possible to assist the client in reaching a sensible compromise."

Legal 500, 2020

"The team combines an in-depth knowledge of the construction industry together with commercial pragmatism."

Legal 500, 2020

"Great client base and cover all aspects of construction law both domestically and internationally."

Legal 500, 2020

"CMS are undoubtedly one of the most pleasurable construction teams to work with. They are talented, user friendly, dedicated and incredibly knowledgeable."

Legal 500, 2020

"It is a confident and user-friendly team which roundly produces top-quality, commercial advice in tune with the business timescales we are working to.”

Chambers, 2018
Law-Now: Con­struc­tion & En­gin­eer­ing Dis­putes
Vis­it Law-Now for leg­al know-how and com­ment­ary

Feed

23/11/2022
Pro­tec­tion from protests
Protest on the streets, protest on­line, even lit­ig­a­tion used as a vehicle for protest.Protest­ors tar­get­ing a busi­ness may be stand­ing in a crowd, hold­ing a plac­ard or shout­ing slo­gans. But they may also be be­hind a com­puter screen or pur­su­ing a claim against the busi­ness through the courts. They may even be work­ing in­side the busi­ness, pre­par­ing to com­prom­ise its sys­tems or leak con­fid­en­tial in­form­a­tion.Wheth­er they are act­iv­ists, em­ploy­ees or cus­tom­ers, all these protest­ors may present a sub­stan­tial chal­lenge and a real threat to busi­nesses, in areas in­clud­ing its se­cur­ity, repu­ta­tion and bot­tom line. 
Publication
11/10/2021
Re­ad­just­ing Risks: CMS In­ter­na­tion­al Con­struc­tion Sur­vey 2021
In­tro­duc­tion The COV­ID-19 crisis is an ex­treme ex­ample of the many un­ex­pec­ted in­cid­ents that im­pact con­struc­tion pro­jects, res­ult­ing in heightened ten­sions and dis­putes amongst stake­hold­ers. The pan­dem­ic has ac­cen­tu­ated many of the typ­ic­al fric­tions that oc­cur in the con­struc­tion in­dustry, as well as high­light new chal­lenges. No mat­ter how ex­per­i­enced or as­tute the parties to a pro­ject are, when ne­go­ti­at­ing and con­clud­ing con­tracts, there is al­ways the po­ten­tial for an un­fore­seen event to cause ma­jor dis­rup­tion, res­ult­ing in com­mer­cial pres­sures and fin­an­cial losses.Re­ad­just­ing Risks, the latest CMS In­ter­na­tion­al Con­struc­tion Sur­vey for 2021, is avail­able to down­load now. This year's re­port ex­amined more than 50 re­sponses from seni­or mem­bers of the in­dustry and con­duc­ted in­ter­views with lead­ing fig­ures that have key re­spons­ib­il­it­ies for con­struc­tion con­tracts, pro­jects and the res­ol­u­tion of dis­putes. The sur­vey drew in re­sponses from across the world, es­pe­cially Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Lat­in Amer­ica.    The re­port show­cases the primary trends in the mar­ket, from the in­creas­ing en­thu­si­asm for ar­bit­ra­tion as a pre­ferred form of dis­pute res­ol­u­tion, along with mount­ing pref­er­ences for me­di­ation and oth­er forms of al­tern­at­ive dis­pute res­ol­u­tion (ADR), to in­dustry-wide re­cog­ni­tion that keep­ing bet­ter re­cords and man­aging change more ef­fect­ively are vi­tal to min­im­ising ten­sions and po­ten­tial dis­putes. It also re­views the ad­di­tion­al strain of COV­ID-19 on the in­dustry.
Publication
14/01/2021
CMS strengthens In­fra­struc­ture, Con­struc­tion and En­ergy Dis­putes team with...
In­ter­na­tion­al law firm CMS is pleased to an­nounce the ap­point­ment of Emma Schaaf­sma (Kra­tochvilova) as a part­ner in its Band 1 ranked In­fra­struc­ture, Con­struc­tion and En­ergy (ICE) Dis­putes group based...
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10/09/2020
Priv­ilege: What you need to know
The last couple of years have seen some im­port­ant de­vel­op­ments in Eng­lish case law in the area of leg­al pro­fes­sion­al priv­ilege, from the Court of Ap­peal over­turn­ing a re­strict­ive in­ter­pret­a­tion of lit­ig­a­tion...
Publication
31/07/2019
An­nu­al Re­view of Eng­lish Con­struc­tion Law De­vel­op­ments 2019
The 2019 edi­tion of our in­ter­na­tion­ally fo­cused An­nu­al Re­view of Eng­lish Con­struc­tion Law De­vel­op­ments sum­mar­ises the key de­vel­op­ments of Eng­lish con­struc­tion law over the last 12 months.This edi­tion...
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14/06/2018
An­nu­al Re­view of Eng­lish Con­struc­tion Law De­vel­op­ments 2018
Wel­come to the 2018 edi­tion of our in­ter­na­tion­ally fo­cused An­nu­al Re­view of Eng­lish Con­struc­tion Law De­vel­op­ments.2017 has been an­oth­er busy year for the de­vel­op­ment of Eng­lish con­struc­tion law. This...
Guide
09/05/2018
Con­struc­tion Fo­cus 2018 – Risk and re­si­li­ence in con­struc­tion con­tracts...
Join us as the CMS Con­struc­tion team share their ex­per­i­ence of com­pil­ing and un­pick­ing con­struc­tion con­tracts. In an in­creas­ingly chan­ging polit­ic­al and eco­nom­ic land­scape, this half day sem­in­ar will...
Event Legal
24/04/2018
CMS Con­struc­tion Con­fer­ence 2018 – Risk and Re­si­li­ence in Con­struc­tion...
Join our CMS Con­struc­tion team at the 2018 Con­struc­tion Con­fer­ence which fo­cuses on mit­ig­at­ing risk in con­struc­tion con­tracts. Top­ics Our team will provide up­dates on:Pay­ment and pay­less no­tices - where...
Event Legal
19/12/2017
CMS guide to the FID­IC 2017 suite
At the be­gin­ning of Decem­ber 2017, FID­IC pub­lished its much-her­al­ded and long awaited new edi­tions of the Red, Yel­low and Sil­ver Books. The new ver­sions con­tain ex­tens­ive amend­ments and are an at­tempt...
Guide
01/08/2017
NEC4
At the NEC Users Group An­nu­al Sem­in­ar on 22 June, the new NEC4 suite of con­tracts was launched with much fan­fare and praise by mem­bers of the ICE, Cab­in­et Of­fice, in­dustry and nat­ur­ally, the NEC4 Con­tract...
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05/06/2017
An­nu­al Re­view of Eng­lish Con­struc­tion Law Dis­putes
Wel­come to the 2017 edi­tion of our in­ter­na­tion­ally fo­cused An­nu­al Re­view of Eng­lish Con­struc­tion Law De­vel­op­ments.2016 has been a busy year for the de­vel­op­ment of Eng­lish con­struc­tion law, mak­ing this...
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18/04/2017
Dis­putes di­gest
Wel­come to our Spring edi­tion of Dis­putes Di­gest. In this edi­tion, we look back at 2016 and sum­mar­ise the key lit­ig­a­tion and ar­bit­ra­tion cases of 2016 for cor­por­ate coun­sel to be aware of. We also...
Publication
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